Team:William and Mary/Team
Meet The Team
Beteel is a senior and Biology major who believes that science should always be of service to the world. She is the oldest of five siblings and is driven to take care of people. She loves poetry, filmmaking, and quotes. She also believes that you should never settle for anything.
Justin is a sophomore interested in biology and chemistry, among other things. Some of his favorite pieces of lab equipment are the vortex mixer, rotovap, and NMR, but the MiniSpin centrifuge has a special place in his heart. He is also a fan of cream soda, Quebecois music, and the color orange.
Avery is a junior at William and Mary majoring in biology and minoring in biochemistry. She loves doing minipreps, shocking her fellow labmates. In her free time, Avery likes to read mystery books, watch TikToks, and play chess, sometimes against her incredibly overweight cat.
Pinar is a junior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in CAMS. She can be spotted in her wild habitat, under thick blankets (even during the 90 degree Williamsburg summer), listening to emo music while playing Mario Kart or watching sobby Korean dramas. Her biggest motivation is to be able to touch others’ lives with science, as much and as long as she can.
KC is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Computational and Applied Mathematics on the Mathematical Biology track. In her free time she loves to make art and listen to music, but the occasion often calls for her to let it all out in a jam session or dance party. She likes finding the answers to questions, the texture of agar, and the god-like feeling that comes from a successful line of code.
Matt is a senior majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and CAMS (Computational & Applied Mathematics & Statistics). His hobbies include being a radio deejay, playing every intramural sport imaginable, learning guitar, traveling, activism, and telling everyone he knows about synthetic biology. His biggest interests are alternative indie music, professional soccer and basketball, national parks, A Song of Ice and Fire books, and Survivor.
Julia is a sophomore majoring in biology and psychology (but not pre-med, before you ask). She’s infamous for singing way too loudly in the shower and for her neverending mental repository of puns. Her favorite activities in Williamsburg include frequenting the Wawa at odd hours of the night and going on “runs” to look at the animals in CW.
Ubaid is a junior majoring in Physics. His hobbies include cycling, reading, and collecting pens. He likes taking typing speed tests in his spare time and 432 nm. He has a particular disdain for atoms, as they tend to make up everything. His goal was to become a deeply interesting person, but the entire team thinks that he has already achieved this goal!!!
Linda is a senior majoring in Applied Math and CAMS Math Bio. She likes dyes and loading gels, but not so much pipetting in general; gels are just fun. All her interests are kind of niche and boring, such as ‘90s lofi music, classic literature, origami, and neural oscillations (for a cooler one).
Alana is a sophomore majoring in biology, and is crazy about all things bioengineering. Her favorite food is plantain and her favorite pipettes are P1000. She’s always happy to chat about phages, or hear a new book rec that she probably won’t get around to reading. You can probably spot her around campus, listening to music at the Daily Grind or on her way to Lake Matoaka.
Dr. Mainak Patel is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the College of William and Mary with an affiliate appointment in the Neuroscience Program. He completed an M.D. from New York University and a Ph.D in Computational Biology (focusing on neuronal modeling) from the Courant Institute for Applied Mathematics (New York University). He joined the faculty of the Mathematics Department at the College of William and Mary in 2014 where he has taught Calculus, Differential Equations, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Mathematical Biology.
Dr. Saha is a developmental neurobiologist (and loves combining synthetic biology with development) and the primary adviser of the W&M iGEM Team. Her unwavering support was instrumental in the founding of the team in 2014, and in the team's continuation every year since then. She drinks 15 cups of coffee per day, much to the concern of some of her students. She insists it's all right.
