Judging/Committee
Judging Committees
Judging Program Committee (formerly Executive Judging Committee) at the 2019 Giant Jamboree.
Judging Program Committee
The iGEM Judging Program Committee is charged with running, updating, maintaining, and managing the judging program within the iGEM Competition. This includes: setting medal and award criteria, evaluating and refining rubric language, and writing and revising content for both judges and teams. Our goal is to ensure a fair competition in which judges are able to clearly and consistently assess the important parts of everyone’s project.
Beth Beason-Abmayr
Committee Member
Teaching Professor of BioSciences, Rice University
Beth has a Ph.D. in Physiology & Biophysics and is a National Academies Education Mentor in the Life Sciences. She teaches multiple course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) as well as a student-centered course in animal physiology. A founding leader of the Rice iGEM team, she has been the faculty advisor since 2006. Beth has been judging iGEM since 2011, including co-head judge at two regional jamborees, and has served on the Judging Program Committee since 2014.
Janie Brennan
Committee Member
Lecturer of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis
Janie was originally an iGEMer as an undergrad at Purdue (2007-2009). She then helped mentor the Purdue team from 2010-2015 and has been the WashU faculty advisor since 2015. Janie has been judging iGEM since 2011, including the inaugural high school Jamborees, and has served on the Judging Program Committee since 2014. Her PhD is in Chemical Engineering, and her research interests are primarily in engineering education.
Nils-Christian Lübke
Committee Member
Doctoral candidate at the Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Bielefeld University
Nils’s research is focused on bacterial regulatory networks. He also lectures high school classes in biotechnology. Nils has been part of the iGEM community since 2010, as a member (2010) and then supervisor (2011-2014) of Bielefeld’s collegiate teams. His judging experience comprises regional (2013) and championship judging (2014, 2015). He has served on the Judging Program Committee since 2016.
Jessica C. M. Tang
Committee Member
Teaching Associate in Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Jessica has a PhD in Microbiology. She teaches several undergraduate lecture courses, including a blended learning course as well as an experiential lab course. She has been an iGEM instructor for the iGEM HKUST team since 2010, served as an iGEM judge since 2015 and is a member of the Judging Program Committee since 2017.
Christopher Workman
Committee Member
Associate Professor, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Chris Workman is an Associate Professor at DTU Bioengineering and has supervised iGEM teams since 2010. His research interests are in genomics, modeling and gene regulation of stress, and he teaches Synthetic Biology and Systems Biology.
Patrick Wu
Committee Member
Life Science Marketing Consultant
Patrick has a Master's of Biomedical Technology from the University of Calgary and has participated in the Calgary iGEM team from 2010-2013. He has also judged since 2013 and continues to support Alberta high school and collegiate iGEM teams as a guest lecturer for the geekStarter program.
Judging Corps Committee
The iGEM Judging Corps Committee is charged with recruiting, training and maintaining the judging cohort and community year on year. This includes recruiting and evaluating judge applicants, educating and training judges in preparation for the Giant Jamboree, evaluating judging feedback to help improve the judging experience and maintaining a judging community that carries on year after year. The main responsibility of the committee is to build and maintain a sustainable “Happy” judging community, which plays an important role to ensure the iGEM teams have a valuable and insightful judging experience.
Paul James
Committee Chair
Vice Chancellors Senior Fellow, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Northumbria University
Paul has been an advisor and one of the principal investigators of the Exeter iGEM team since 2013. He believes iGEM not only sparked his interest in synthetic biology but is one of the major reasons he was able to start his own lab looking at the use of synthetic biology in the built environment. Paul has been involved in iGEM judging since 2014 serving one year as a poster judge before becoming a track judge and attending every giant jamboree since
Nancy Burgess Christen
Committee Member
Consultant
Nancy is an independent consultant and has a PhD in Molecular Biophysics. Her career in the US Government began as a Presidential Management Fellow managing a portfolio to develop therapeutics and ended as a senior policy analyst. She is currently raising a large family on the coast of North Carolina, USA. She first judged for iGEM in 2011 and remains committed to science advancement and education.
Daisuke Kiga
Committee Member
Professor, Waseda University
Dice-K received a Ph.D in the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, the University of Tokyo in 1999. He was an iGEM team PI 2006-2015 and 2021. He also served as an iGEM judge 2010-2015 and 2017-2018. His research interests are design of genetic circuit and engineering of genetic codes.
Kyle Rothschild-Mancinelli
Committee Member
Oliva Sánchez Montesinos
Committee Member
Sales Representative, First Quality Chemicals
Oliva became part of the iGEM community in 2014 as a team member of the Tecnológico de Monterrey CEM first collegiate team and has since then been involved as an advisor and instructor for both high school and Undergraduate teams. She has been a judge at the iGEM Giant Jamboree since 2018. Oliva currently works in First Quality Chemicals as a Sales Representative for the Personal Care and Pharmaceutical Industry throughout Latin America.
Cross Committee Members
Peter Carr
Director of Judging
Senior Staff, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Bioengineering Group
Peter wears many hats in iGEM, spanning the committees for judging, responsible conduct, safety, and human practices. In his day job he sits at the technical intersection of synthetic biology, microfluidics, and biosecurity. Peter has been involved with iGEM since 2004.
Traci Haddock-Angelli
iGEM HQ Committee Liaison for JPC and JCC
Director of the Competition, iGEM Foundation
Traci has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and has worked at iGEM HQ as a Fellow, the Director of Technology, and now the Director of the Competition. Traci oversees all aspects of the iGEM Competition and is working to ensure that all of our teams have a successful iGEM season.
Vinoo Selvarajah
iGEM HQ Committee Liaison for JPC
Director of the Registry, iGEM Foundation
Vinoo has worked at iGEM HQ as a lab technician, Generalist, and now the Director of the Registry. He works on the distribution kits, parts and the Registry.
Dorothy Zhang
iGEM HQ Committee Liaison for JCC
Director of Community Engagement, iGEM Foundation
iGEM Foundation
The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open community and collaboration. Visit us at igem.org
Contact
hq AT igem DOT org
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Cambridge, MA 02139
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