Our Team

The Genetic Engineering Corps of NDSU

We are North Dakota State Univeristy's iGEM team, the Genetic Engineering Corps. (GEC). We our North Dakota's first iGEM team, and one of the few teams in the upper midwest of the United States. GEC works on campus in Dr. Geddes's lab in Fargo, North Dakota's largest city. We have 5 officers and 5 committees headed by their committee chairs. Such committees include...

Organization Committee
Project Committee
Lab Committee
Fundraising Committee
PR Committee

Zachary Tiedeman

President
Zach is one of the founders of NDSU’s iGEM team. His work with the team includes coordinating the activities, lab work, and organization. He is a Biotechnology major at NDSU and dreams of one day taking his experience with the team and using it to develop real-world synthetic biology products.

Mia Haugan

Vice-President, Project Committee Chair
On the team, Mia helps manage the lab work, and has led the process of deciding on our project. She is a sophomore currently studying microbiology and researching the impact of plant-colonizing bacteria on alfalfa plants. Outside of the lab I like camping, reading, and painting.

Caroline Osborne

Treasurer, Lab and Fundraising Committee Member
Caroline is a senior studying biotechnology. She works on the lab committee to help run experiments, as well as on the fundraising committee to help brainstorm ideas for funding. She works in a dry bean genetics lab at NDSU and really enjoys collecting houseplants!

Erica Crawford

Outreach Coordinator
Erica is a Junior majoring in Medical Laboratory Science with minors in Microbiology and Zoology. As our Outreach Coordinator, Erica leads the PR committee, which works on presenting our project, promoting our team and STEM, and acquiring new members. In her free time, Erica enjoys playing board and video games, drawing, and crafts.

Taylor Pennington

Secretary
Taylor is a senior majoring in Biotechnology with minors in Microbiology, Chemistry, and Psychology. As Secretary, Taylor leads the Organizational committee by coordinating with club members and assisting with scheduling. In her free time, Taylor enjoys collecting houseplants, reading, and working out.

Marissa Meyer

Lab committee chair
Marissa was a Senior when she joined the NDSU igem team, and is now a graduate student at NDSU. She was instrumental in setting up the lab and hopes to use her experience in her own lab career in the future.

Gabrielle Welsch

Fundraising committee chair
Gabrielle is a Junior Pre-Med major and also our fundraising committee chair. As head of fundraising committee, Gabrielle helped our team with contacting sponsors and grant providers, while also setting up fundraising activities for students to attend.

Barney Geddes, PhD.

Mentor
AS an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiological Sciences, Dr.Geddes runs a research laboratory studying rhizobium-legume symbiosis and the plant microbiome in the Department of Microbiological Sciences at NDSU. He also teaches microbial genomics. He has a huge interest in synthetic biology and is super excited to be mentoring NDSU’s first iGem team! Dr.Geddes has all sorts of hobbies, but right now he is enjoying learning running, rock climbing and bird carving.

Drew Jordahl

Lab Committee Member
Drew is a Junior majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is passionate about research and wants to make the world a better place through scientific advancement. After his B.S., he plans on continuing my education in graduate school with the goal of completing a PhD in biochemistry. He has greatly enjoyed synthetic biology research so far and would like to continue working in this field during graduate school.

Adele Malone

Lab and PR Committee Member
Adele is a last-semester senior (graduating this winter) double majoring in biology and microbiology. Outside of class and iGEM, she works in Dr. Kendra Greenlee's lab working with insects, namely bees. She has worked on many projects including evaluating insulin pathway gene expression levels given varying abiotic factors, major bee metabolite concentrations, and standardizing hemolymph extractions. When not in the lab, she enjoys playing for the women's rugby team, the Fighting Snappers, and making memories with friends!

Jake Schumacher

Project and Fundraising Committee Member
Jake is a first year doctoral student. As a graduate researcher, he focuses on nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbionts with the eventual hope of creating bacteria capable of fixing nitrogen in cereal crops. When he is not in the lab, you can find him on a soccer field or throwing a frisbee around with some friends. I'm excited to be a part of NDSU's team as we compete in our inaugural iGEM competition.

Brianna Szyszka

Organization and Fundraising Committee Member
Brianna is a senior Pre-Medical student at NDSU planning on taking a gap year and before applying! In her free time she likes to spend time with friends, sew, read, and watch Youtube. She is looking forward to the semester ahead and participating further in iGEM!

Alaina Wallock

PR and Project Committee Member
Alaina is a junior majoring in Biological Sciences with minors in chemistry and neuroscience. She plans to pursue a career in the medical field as a neurosurgeon. Her role on the team is to help find information needed about our plants and bacteria, along with sharing our progress on our Facebook platform!

Everett Glower

Lab and Project committe member
Everett is a 3rd year Biochemistry student, avid gamer, and lover of synthetic biology. He is planning on entering research in molecular biology, and his work with igem has given him experience with recombinant DNA technology, bringing him one step closer to that goal.

Harkamal Kaur

Lab committee member
Harkamal is a graduate student at NDSU studying Plant Pathology. She has a great interest in synthetic biology, and is excited to experience the process through iGEM!

Christina Gruber

Organizational and PR committee member
Christi was a freshmen when she joined the team, and is a Biotechnology major. She had previously participated in a robotics club in high school, and is excited to take that approach to the synthetic biology field!

Madilyn Smith

Project and PR Committee Member
Maddy is a sophomore majoring in Biotechnology. In the Project Committee, she helped brainstorm and research project ideas. Additionally, as part of the PR Committee, Maddy assisted with brainstorming and editing our promotional video and keeping up some of our social media.

Social Media

Instagram: ndsu_gec

Team:NDSU/Team