Crystal Xu
High School Student
Bio: Crystal will be a junior at Lincoln East high school. She enjoys traveling by long plane rides, eating desserts, and running cross country and track. One day she hopes to become a great surgeon.
Alexis Krepps
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Email: Alexiskrepps@hotmail.com
Bio: Alexis is a rising senior studying biomedical engineering. As a non-typical engineer, her Myers-Briggs personality is ESFJ and plans to go into biomedical device sales career after graduation. She is a caffeine-dependent life form and can quote Sweet Home Alabama better than you and all your friends. Currently, she is seeking the best promo codes for life and elevating small talk to medium talk.
Jessica Harms
Major: Chemical Engineering
Bio: Jessica is going to be a second year chemical engineering major. Even though she spent most of highschool playing snare drum for competitive drumlines in the omaha/metro area her true passion is science. Other interests include crocheting, Mario Kart and hiking. One day she wishes to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.
Nicholas Flaxbeard
Major: Chemical Engineering
Bio: Nick is going to be a senior in chemical engineering this upcoming school year. He also plays professional jazz piano in the Omaha/Lincoln area. He hopes to work in the research industry, and potentially pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering as well.
Logan Uhlir
Major: Computer Engineering
Bio: Logan is a sophomore computer engineering major from western Nebraska who hopes to use his future degree in a biological setting. Logan enjoys listening to music, running, and learning new things.
Tyler Barker
Major: Computer Engineering
Email: tylerbarker0123@gmail.com
Bio: Tyler is a Junior Computer Engineering undergraduate who plans to get his masters in Computer Engineering or Computer Science. Tyler hopes to better the computer science field and help the public to better understand how they work. Tyler can tie his shoes most days of the week.
Nic Kite
Major: Biochemisty
Bio: Nic will be entering his junior year. He grew up in a small town and enjoys the rural life. Nic wishes to continue pursuing genetic engineering research after his time with iGEM.
Danny Dooling
Major: Chemistry & Microbiology
Email: ddooling@huskers.unl.edu
Bio: Danny is a senior Chemistry and Microbiology major, planning on attending medical school. By day, Danny is a Chemistry and Biology TA. By night, he is an active connoisseur of Chinese food and a pug enthusiast.
Colton Harper
Major: Computer Science & Mathematics
Email: colton.harper@huskers.unl.edu
Bio: Colton is a junior pursuing a B.S. degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. He plans to attend graduate school and then secure a position in academia. His research interests are in molecular communication, information theory, and synthetic biology. Colton’s favorite onomatopoeia is “Whoup-a chyah”.
Jaroslaw A. Pankowski
Instructor (Postdoctoral Fellow)
BSc, University of Warsaw
MSc, University of Warsaw
Ph.D., University of Victoria
Email: jaroslaw.pankowski@unl.edu
Bio: Jaroslaw is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the UNL’s Department of Chemistry. He specializes in molecular microbiology and bacterial genetics. His research interests are focused on artificial genetic circuits and application of synthetic biology concepts. In his spare time he enjoys science fiction books and movies.
Erome Hankore
Instructor (Graduate Student)
B.S., Union College
Email: erome-daniel.hankore@huskers.unl.edu
Bio: Erome is from Ethiopia in East Africa. She enjoys Gospel music and likes to sing. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D degree from the chemistry department at UNL under the chemical biology division. She likes teaching and hopes to pursue a career in academia.
Myra Cohen
Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor
iGEM Faculty Mentor
Email: myra@cse.unl.edu
Phone: 402-472-2305
Office: 364 Avery Hall
Bio: Myra Cohen is a Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a member of the ESQuaReD software engineering research group. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and her M.S. from the University of Vermont. She is the recipient of both a National Science Foundation Early CAREER award and an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award. Her research interests are in software testing of configurable systems, search-based software engineering and applications of software testing techniques to biological systems engineering.
Cheryl Immethun
Postdoctoral Fellow
BS, Mechanical Engineering, UMC
BS, Environmental Science, UMKC
PhD, Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis Instructor
iGEM Faculty Mentor
Email: cimmethun2@unl.edu
Phone: (402) 472-2750
Office: 209.1 Othmer Hall
Bio: Cheryl focuses on engineering microbes’ vast biochemical capabilities to address societal needs. Her expertise is photosynthetic bacteria, which use light and carbon dioxide to make a number of different products sustainably. Her passions include solving puzzles (in and out of the lab,) as well as exciting students about the mysteries of science and helping them develop the tools to become society’s problem solvers.
Jiantao Guo
Associate Professor
iGEM Faculty Mentor
Email: jguo4@unl.edu
Phone: 402-472-3525
Office: 634AA Hamilton Hall
Bio: Dr. Guo received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Organic Chemistry from Nankai University with Professor Jin-Pei Cheng, and his Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University with Professor John W. Frost. He pursued postdoctoral studies with Professor Peter G. Schultz at The Scripps Research Institute before joining the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Department of Chemistry as an Assistant Professor in 2010.
Wei Niu
Associate Professor
iGEM Faculty Mentor
Email: wniu2@unl.edu
Phone: 402-472-5348
Office: 207R Othmer
Bio: Dr. Wei Niu is a Synthetic Biologist and an Assistant Professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research focuses on the metabolic engineering principles that are used for biological microbial-synthesis of industrial additive chemicals from sustainable feedstocks, which also entails the development of enzymes and auxiliary proteins that are used to develop pharmaceutical and other energy-applied molecules.
Massimiliano Pierobon
Assistant Professor
iGEM Faculty Mentor
Email: maxp@unl.edu
Phone: 402-472-5021
Office: 107 Schorr Center
Bio: Massimiliano Pierobon is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Pierobon holds also a courtesy appointment at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, effective from September 2014. Dr. Pierobon received the Master of Science (B.S.+M.S.) degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2005.