Hi. My name is Tom Patrick, and I am on the University of Alberta iGEM team this year. I just finished my first year studying engineering, and I am going to specialize in environmental engineering. Synthetic biology is a field I find very interesting, and I am excited to be participating in this competition. All the laboratory skills I am applying I have been learning ‘on the job’, and have discovered I do not have good synergy with our lab’s PCR machine. For that reason, I have started point putting denigrating stickers on it and calling it hurtful names behind its back. My hobbies include skiing, listening to music, watching movies, and playing cards.

I am entering my third year of Immunology and Infection in the department of IMIN at the University of Alberta. Although, I have previous experience in labs (research and course), iGEM is going to be a new and exciting experience for me. As this is my first year in iGEM, I hope to apply the skills I learned from hands-on experience in labs and the knowledge gained in lectures. What truly makes me excited about iGEM is the independence and cooperation. The goal of the project, the methods undertaken to accomplish it, and the success and inevitable failures of the experiments rests entirely upon us (the team). I hope to increase the rate of success by working hard in the lab. Outside of the lab, I like to read science fiction books, play video games, and attempt to live a healthy lifestyle by playing badminton.

I graduated in the summer of 2012 from the Biological Science program at the U of A. I am very proud to have had the opportunity to participate in the iGEM project. This project not only provided me with the laboratory work experience, it also fueled my interest to go into the research field. iGEM provided me the chances to share some different views about the future with other participants. The goal of the project was to provide me and other participants with techniques and way of thinking to successfully solve synthetic biology problems. Furthermore, the greatest teammates, TA, and professors in this iGEM team are like a microcosm world that gave me memories that I will never forget in life. I am looking forward to having lots of fun and excitement with my teammates in the future iGEM competition.

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