Team:REC-CHENNAI/Our-Team
Marcia
Team Leader
Pursuing a degree in Biotechnology, she's one of the top students in class and with good reason. She’s the true definition of alpha female and it’s why she’s the best leader our team could have. She’s decisive, brutally honest and realistic but she always racks her brains to make sure she’s fair. In the lab she takes point and makes sure everything proceeds perfectly and according to protocol. She’s a Science and Research junkie whose drug of choice is ‘The Human Body with all its intricacy, delicacy, perfection and balance'. Naturally she would like to pursue a career in healthcare. When she's not chasing international acclaim in the iGEM lab, Marcia loves to bake and Binge and blog about food. If you'd like to try out a new cuisine dish or restaurant in town, she's the person you'd like to talk to.
Contributions: As a team leader, she works on wet lab and ensures the overall coordination of the team with respect to wet lab, modelling and HP.
Ashwin
Team Leader
Amal Jude Ashwin is in the final year of B.Tech Biotechnology. A member of the ‘endangered species of lean guys’, Amal Jude Ashwin is an atypical jock. He’d rather play than date. It’s as fairly impossible to name a series of sports that he hasn’t tried as it is to see him legitimately angry. His love extends from riding his bike and well into meaningful music. He can play the keyboard and guitar as well. As a guiding principle he holds that when in Rome, be Roman. Keep an ear out for his stories – they’re amusing.
Contributions: He works on wet lab and ensures that the logistics of the iGEM related events stay as smooth as possible. He also serves as a team leader.
Shreenidhi K.S
Advisor
The university gold medallist that Shreenidhi K.S, she leaves no stone unturned in getting a process thoroughly done. She’s enrolled as a PhD scholar in the department of Biotechnology. An associate editor of the department magazine, her tenure has seen an intersection of curricular and extracurricular activities. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the ‘Best all-rounder’ for the year 2010-2011. She owns an ability to think clearly and act quickly in testing circumstances, all the while donning a smile. She holds strong as a bridge between the laboratory work and project management.
Sakthi
Advisor
Sakthi is a dual degree holder and is one of the advisors. She works in both wet lab and dry lab equally. She loves to be loaded with work all the time and sitting idle for more than few hours does not suit her. More of a visual person, she prefers movies and documentaries to books. Age does not hold her back while doing crazy stuff. She’s passionate about learning new languages which mostly happens by watching series and sometimes through classes. Europe and Seoul are her dream destinations. At last but not the least, she’s the "haengboghae" (be happy) type.
Sriram
Advisor
Biotechnologist extraordinaire, there isn’t anything this man hasn’t achieved. From being the best outgoing UG student to doing his M.Tech final year project at NTU Singapore, Sriram remains humble and down-to-earth. The team would truly be incomplete without his valued expertise and timely advice. His need for perfection is something that the entire team admires and strives to attain. His obsessions include genetics and downing entire bottles of Mirinda during project discussions.
Sunanda
Member
If you hear a shrill scream and see a lizard two miles away, you’re probably going to meet Sunanda Kannapadi. She’s a ball of diversity and an icon of intensity, usually seen juggling her technical and non-technical interests. Never short of words and food, she dispenses them with equal ease, often alarming those in proximity. She trudged into biotechnology with a heavy sense of purpose and waddled through campus with exceptionally short legs. She aims to become a quality control officer at a cosmetic lab in the future.
Contributions: Currently pursuing her final year of B.Tech Biotechnology, she contributes in wet lab and is a member of the HP team.
Mohan
Member
Perceptive, astute and thorough are not just adjectives in B S Mohan Kumar’s dictionary, they’re virtues that he stands by. As a final year student of his biotechnology undergraduate, his management and collaborative skills have stood the testimonies of time leaving a trail of research projects. He has experimented in the fields of nano-biotechnology, environmental biotechnology and plant biotechnology. When he’s not experimenting, he can be seen reading novels or listening to music with the same fervour. He seeks to explore cuisines and cultures as a part of his travel diaries one day.
Contributions: He works extensively in the laboratory and is often seen discussing and helping troubleshoot experiments.
Srimathi
Member
To Srimathi J, small is often significant. She’s easily fascinated and often fosters a tad too many questions in mind. The comfort of the chaos amidst a myriad of mayhem has driven the eloquence in her – she’s an author who publishes her stories online. She’s passionately inclined towards finding the impossible, interested in uninterrupted learning and invested in making the world a much better place. She fancies making a lot of money and spending it all on nothing but trying to get fat. Meet our own 5’4” Indian version of Erin Maers.
Contributions: She is a senior in the department of Biotechnology and works on wet lab and has been hugely resourceful in the optimisation experiments
Priyanka
Member
The scenery in REC is far from complete without Priyanka Chandramouli. She’s a final year student of B.Tech Biotechnology. With an infectious smile and a spring in her steps, she skips through corridors and sleeps throughclasses. A gifted artist, her beautiful drawings elicit admiration for raw talent and appreciation of technique even from the laymen. She’s also a champion in solving Ravensburger puzzles and holds her 3000-piece puzzle close to her heart. She fancies owning the 5000-piece puzzle but alas her likes are quite expensive on the wallet. She aspires to become a successful entrepreneur one day and to afford all the puzzles in the world.
Contributions: She works on wet lab techniques and optimisation protocols.
Deepak
Member
Caught in the depths of photography is Deepak, aka ‘Deeps’. He is a pre-final year student pursuing his engineering undergraduate in Biotechnology. With a flair for freezing time from behind his lens, he could catch you in one of your most questionable moments. When he’s not being an impatient soul, he morphs into a poet, whipping out beautiful verses. He’s a bike aficionado and proclaims that while four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.Within biotechnology, he prides himself on his expert plating skills and aspires to work with autism in the future.
Contributions: He works on wet lab experimentation and often takes part in HP related brainstorming.
Khadija
Member
It is so easy to fall irrevocably in love with Science when one is around Khadija. She loves Biology for all its intricate details and the complexity that is so beautifully disguised. As a final year student of B.Tech Biotechnology, she strives for perfection in everything she does and believes that there is no substitute to dedication and hardwork. When she is not swamped with HP and Modelling work, she is at the iGEM lab lending her expertise to the wetlab team. In her downtime, she reads books, travels to new places, bakes the occasional cake and spends quality time with her dad. Ten years down the line, she hopes to be a successful teacher-researcher or maybe even manage her very own Science journal. However, some things will hopefully never change. She will probably still fancy herself some coffee ice-cream, read Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel for the 300th time, and still be befuddled by the beautiful mess that is Science.
Contributions: She works on wet lab and contributes extensively in the design and execution of modelling objectives.
Hema
Member
A quiet and shy girl is what everyone thinks of Hemalekshmi when they first meet her. She is a final year student of B.Tech Biotechnology. She loves making new friends and is fiercely loyal to her existing ones. She loves to eat chicken and watch Friends. She was once a Carnatic singer and still loves singing to this day. Above all, she values her sleep and takes naps to keep herself fresh and ready for the challenges that we face in the lab. She’s a wonderful presence to have because she often says the right thing at the right time.She also gets along with everyone on the team which is one of the many things that make her an invaluable addition to our team. She enjoys reading about different diseases and hopes to get into researching them in the future.
Contributions: She contributes in wet lab based experimentation and is seen enthusiastically participating in brainstorming sessions.
Gowtham
Member
Gowtham is a final year student from the department of Biotechnology. An aspiring molecular biologist who loves to read about things past, you’d never get past him if he finds you dog-earing the pages of his books. While the work of William Blake and George.R.R. Martin, leave him spell-bound, it’s the late Ayrton Senna who has his heart. If you’d ever judge him for always listening to music at an odd volume number, you’d be wrong just as you would be if you judged his appetite by looking at his size. He loves science as it holds the key to everything, and hopes that iGEM will be the key that will help him unlock his potential.
Contributions: He contributes to wet lab experiments and was also a part of the interlab team.
Vignesh
Member
The ever-smiling Vignesh is someone the team is very lucky to have. Being a pre-final year student of Biotechnology, he is calm, sincere and strives to improve everyday. He is eager and enthusiastic to learn about the various aspects of Science. He always makes his presence felt by asking apt questions showing his inquisitiveness. His passion was, is and always will be Cricket, along with Science of course. He desires to adapt to any situation that’s thrown upon him and to come out of them guns blazing. He’s easily the kindest person on the team. He’d like to reach his goals by being simple and thinking different.
Contributions: He contributes extensively to wet lab and enthusiastically participates in HP related activities.
Sudharshana
Member
All you have to do to be Sudharshana’s friend is come bearing chocolate and a joke that’s not funny in the slightest. She’s a final year Biotechnology student with a passion for all things biology, especially the creepy-crawlies that most of us are terrified of. She has a wonderful work ethic and her calm demeanour, even when things hit the fan, is truly remarkable. She always stands up for what is right even if it’s the hardest thing she has to do. She’s served her time as the President of the Debating Union and can often be seen arguing with people over why they’re wrong and more importantly, why she’s right. Her passions in life include debating, research and food. She aims to do something that truly makes her happy.
Contributions: She contributes in wet lab and with activities relating to HP.
Sneha
Member
Sneha is a person who believes that anything under the sun can be procured with her gusto. She is a third year student of Biotechnology. She is a warm-hearted person who loves to make friends and play with kids. Her love for music can take her into a trance. Her inner Picasso is often awoken by her fantastic eye for colour and design. She’s our in-house graphic designer and she’s pretty good at listening to what we need for our project. She has a knack for figuring out how to use software to our advantage that has proven indispensable for the team. Her combined love for Biology and numbers brought her to Genetics. She loves modifying organisms at a genetic level and wishes to work on cancer research in the future.
Contributions: She works on wet lab and contributes to HP brainstorming. She also helps with designing and is the chief architect of the science sketch.
Nivedha
Member
Nivedha is a third year student pursuing Biotechnology. She’s the centre of attraction not only among her friends but also among the team. Nivedha is very outgoing and friendly to everyone who meets her. One of her strengths are a strong sense of responsibility that makes it easier for everyone to rely on her. She’s an amazing cook who has made four course meals with just a toaster oven. She has proven to be the extremely inventive and her contributions to the team are extremely valuable. Her perseverance and patience prove that she’s a true professional and that she has a great work ethic. Her goal is to get into research while taking social and economic factors into consideration.
Contributions: She works on wet lab and contributes to the HP team.
Preetha
Member
Known for her various academic achievements as the team topper, Preetha is truly very unique to the team. She is a final year student of B.Tech Biotechnology. Her analysis and problem solving abilities are second to none and she always stands as the voice of reason when in difficulty. She is a music lover and biriyani enthusiast. You also hear her from miles away for her pitch beats that of Adam Levine's. Funny, smart and uninhibited, she makes sure to keep the team lively and going.
Contributions: She works on wet lab and is seen talking to experts regarding the project.
Anish
Technical Member
Anish Srinivasan is one of the designers who’s helped us with our tech requirements. He’s a final year student of Computer Science Engineering. He’s extremely dedicated, hardworking and committed to the work that’s expected of him. He’s a full-stack web developer who’s created amazing websites for many companies through his startup Slarity. Apart from being a tech geek, he’s a TV show geek who spends his very little free time watching TV shows like Suits and How I Met Your Mother.
Contributions: He helps extensively with designing and is the backbone of the wiki page along with the other designers.
Alagappan
Technical Member
A final year techie whose interest is Web Development, Alagappan R M has been a real trooper in getting us to meet our tech requirements. He loves playing football and is currently on the college football team playing for the CSE department. He also enjoys his video games and is an avid gamer. Like everyone else on our team, he’s a foodie who enjoys his Pani Puri. His ambition in life is to be an entrepreneur.
Contributions: He is one of the designers and plays an important role in creating the wiki page.
Dr. V. Gayathri
Primary Principal Investigator
With nearly two decades of end to end teaching expertise and research experience, it’s not surprising that the most resourceful member of the team is also the PI. She balances her academic commitments with flawless logistics management and endless team support. Donning the hat of having guided over 34 projects, she also has three patents under her belt. She also coordinates multiple student events and the Innovative Project Cell of REC. We are lucky to have her as a part of the team.
Dr Thiruvengadam S
Secondary Principal Investigator
Dr Thiruvengadam is a senior lecturer in the department of biotechnology with a penchant for microbes. Having pursued his B Sc and M Sc in Microbiology, he completed his PhD in Medical Microbiology. He has published over 13 research papers and attended a multitude of conferences. He always extends a helping hand when in trouble, and while doing so, never forgets to smile. With his expertise in troubleshooting put into good use, we’re very happy to have him on the team.
Mr Arun Kumar
Instructor
A student favourite, he's never found without his smile. With a B.Sc and M.Sc in Chemistry, he bagged the CSIR-JRF in 2008. His current Ph.D work is on the study of small molecule modulation of G protein activity Calnuc protein. As much as enzymes have his attention, his fascination in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has his heart. He loves his food and can be seen taking scenic pictures from lovely hillstations in India. We are truly blessed to have his timely advice and expertise.