Team:Wisconsin-Madison/teammembers

Ryan is a senior in the chemical engineering department at UW-Madison. Originally he was interested in industrial research, but synthetic biology soon stole his heart. When not in the lab, Ryan can be spotted in many places on campus. He spends late nights in the concrete canoe lab, mixing and sanding concrete repeatedly. He also is a tour guide and tutors for organic chemistry. Ryan intends to go to grad school after his last year at Madison, hopefully to pursue his passion for synthetic biology.

Michael is a sophomore in the biochemistry department with both math and physics minors. After working in labs at the Mayo Clinic during high school, and receiving an award at the International Science and Engineering Fair for his immunology research done there, Michael jumped straight into research upon arriving at the UW. Michael has for many years had a passion for synthetic biology and the potential in holds. In his spare time Michael can be found fencing, larping, role-playing, reading, or otherwise being a nerd. Michael plans to go to grad school, pursuing a PhD with every plan of returning to synthetic biology in his future.

Chris is a senior in Microbiology, minoring in Business Entrepreneurship, and is interested in biofuels, biorefining, and the future of the energy economy. He has done research in materials science, pharmaceutical discovery, and unconventional yeast metabolism. When not pondering the fate of humanity, Chris enjoys swimming, water polo, and sailing big boats.

Charles Johnson is a Junior in the department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UW-Madison. He is interested in studying the many different ways synthetic biology can be used to help the world, from medical applications to biofuels. When Charlie is not in the lab he wants follow in his family's footsteps by helping those less fortunate than him, his older brother and grandmother dedicated their lives to teaching in the inner city of Chicago, while his parents have been representing people who could not afford lawyers for 30 plus years, and his younger brother works in a group home helping abused and neglected children get a safe place to live and learn.

Eric was on the 2011 UW-Madison iGEM team, and returned this year as a mentor. He is interested in developing novel, robust genetic systems and circuits. He spent much of his undergraduate career developing systems for engineering cyanobacteria, and is leaving us in the fall to begin the PhD program at UC Davis in the Microbiology Graduate Group. When he's not busy tweeting as @LabBadger or finding new, dreadful music, he's usually out riding his rusty bike through alleys full of broken glass.

Menuka Samaranayake is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is double-majoring in Microbiology and Political Science. This is Menuka's first foray into the huge, exciting world of conducting research, and he feels that this opportunity of competing in iGEM has been an invaluable experience. Menuka has no idea what his career goals are, but would at some point work in the government. In his spare time, he likes to chill with cats

Klaus Lovendahl graduated from UW-Madison and now works with Prof. Jennifer Reed. He currently works on computational modeling of Shewanella and biofuel production in cyanobacteria. His novel Gravity's Rainbow won the National Book Award in 1974.

Yishen is a sophomore in Biomedical Engineering department of University of Wisconsin Madison. He decided to study biology: genetic engineering in specific around middle school. After finishing up his high school education in China, he traveled to the U.S. and became a student of University of Wisconsin in 2011.

He wishes that in the future, he could become a better scientist at synthetic biology and genetic engineering so that he could convert his idea as much as possible into reality. In his spare time, Yishen like spending his time exercising Chinese kung fu, on the hope of better physical condition and a more peaceful state of mind.

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Chelsea is a senior majoring in Microbiology and will also be receiving a certificate in Environmental Studies. Her research has focused on characterizing a close relative of a oney bee pathogen, Paenibacillus alvei and the pathogen itself Paenibacillus larvae. In addition to environmental microbiology, Chelsea is interested in the gut microbiota, food microbiology, and biotechnology. In the winter she can be found on the ski slopes as a volunteer ski patroller. She enjoys yoga, cooking, and puppies.