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Team:Columbia-Cooper-NYC/Universities
From 2012.igem.org
[http://www.columbia.edu Columbia University]
Columbia University is a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many professional fields. As part of the Ivy League and because of its location in New York City, it attracts a diverse faculty and student body from all over the world. With many research opportunities available for students, several undergraduates from Columbia University have partnered with students at The Cooper Union to work on a synthetic biology competition (iGEM) over the summer of 2012. Under the help and supervision of Scott A. Banta, an associate professor in the department of Chemical Engineering in The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the undergraduates were able to work in his lab over the summer and receive funding for their project.
[http://www.cooper.edu The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art]
The majority of the members of this team are "ChemE" undergraduates at the Cooper Union. Cooper is a highly selective, tuition-free college located in Manhattan's East Village. It is small (i.e., contains only 3 schools: Art, Architecture, and Engineering. Within the engineering school are five majors: Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, and general bachelors of engineering. Since Peter Cooper founded the college in 1859, all undergraduates have and continue to receive a full-tuition scholarship upon attending. (Cooper has an acceptance rate around 7-9%.) Visiting Assistant Professor David Orbach, MD who teaches biology courses at Cooper, co-advised both this year's and last year's iGEM team (and is ever grateful for funding from the Rose-Sandholm Biology Initiative). Technician Dionne Lutz serves in the Cooper Union's "Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering" and provided her expertise. David Wootton, PhD directs the Center.
