Profile

I’m an avid biker and get around my city almost exclusively on my bike all year round. With some friends, I’ve started to build a community biology lab, meaning a place for everyone to have access to a science lab and explore how to grow slime mold, paint with bacteria, look into their DNA, and many more activities with anyone who’s interested in playing around. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve my city, and I think it’s a really great thing when scientists interact with the world around them or when people who are intimidated by science still try to help solve the mysteries of the universe.

I get up around 7 and bike down the Lake Shore Path here in Chicago towards the lab at the Art Institute of Chicago. My workday day is typically a mix of teaching, consulting with students on various projects in the lab, maintaining cultures of different microbes and organisms, and helping organize the lab. We have students working on projects ranging from living sculptures, biomaterials, and microfluidics to slime mold communication, biomusicology, and habitat restoration. My main role for students is to be an interpreter between the language of science to the language of artists and designers. In the lab, we maintain cultures of various engineered strains of E. coli (Bacteria), Pseudomonas fluorescens (Bacteria), Physarum polycephalum (Slime mold), Pleurotus sp. (fungi), and many others. We also have a have a vermiculture bin (Worm compost) that I maintain. I’m usually bouncing between these responsibilities and teaching. I teach courses on genetics, bioart, biodesign, and biomaterials. Around 5, I hop back on my bike and head up the Lakeshore path home. I like to stop and grab groceries from the different grocery stores on my way home for different snacks and goodies. My favorite is when the Vietnamese grocery has bahn cam.

Community biology labs are places where anyone can walk in the door, get trained, and start working under scientific supervision on a project they’re really interested in. There are many across the country, but most of them are on the coasts. Some friends and I are trying to get one started and running here in Chicago, but it takes a lot of work and a little bit of money to get started. We really want to be a place where people can start citizen science projects, have room to experiment, have access to equipment to create bioart, or take lessons on fundamental biology.