Biology is around us, in us, and is us. From the beginning of human society to now, we have been creating, engineering, designing with biology. Yet, most people don’t feel connected to biology or feel empowered to innovate using biology. 

To address the globe’s greatest challenges such as climate change, planetary health, social and economic inequality, we need innovative solutions. Solutions that we can’t even imagine right now.

How do we empower people to look within their own communities, needs, and experiences to innovate with biology? We need to change the culture around STEM to amplify existing, local knowledge and empower creativity with biology.

What if anyone was able to look around and engineer solutions to their own problems?

Creating with biology is transformative because the raw materials are in and among us: we can grow the materials we build with by planting seeds, licking Petri dishes. And both the materials and the tools are regenerative. 

Culturally, we imagine labs as engineering spaces and studios are creative ones. Let’s leverage the framing of these creative spaces to expand innovation outside them: the kitchen can be your lab, the garden, your studio. 

If we built labs in communities, for communities, what would people create?  If anyone could walk into a lab and create something, people might design new solutions to old problems: better food, materials, or medicines. 

A new era of the American bioeconomy is just beginning. We are on the cusp of a biotechnology revolution. Our country’s greatest successes have come from giving power to the people, and our greatest tragedies have been when we have failed to do so. 

What if biology innovation started locally in libraries, community gardens, parking lots? Through conversation at home, solutions can emerge that address global needs. We can spark a cultural shift that changes how people feel about biology. 

As a Biosecurity and Innovation Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University, I am leading a research project studying how decentralized bioengineering spaces can advance social and environmental justice. 

Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Fall 2021 (Full time internship)

In the fall of 2021, I moved to Washington, DC to participate in the Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. I worked on the Board of Life Sciences (BLS).

Through my work with the Response and Resilient Recovery Strategic Science Initiative’s(R3SSI) Strategy Group on COVID-19 and Ecosystem Services in the Built Environment, I collaborated with an interdisciplinary team to expand on my ecological expertise to familiarize myself with a new literature base (ecosystem services, green infrastructure) and consulted with experts to design a novel activity for the National Academies associated with strategic planning.

For the Board on Life Sciences’ Fall Board Meeting, I applied my expertise in microbial ecology to summarize and present research “10 years on '' from BLS’ consensus report on Microbial Forensics.

I also designed a collaborative art project with BLS staff with a permanent exhibition in the NASEM Keck Building.

If you are interested in applying for the Mirzayan, I highly recommend reading this doc about the applying for the program created by former fellows, especially Melody Tan. I also wrote a blog post about the Mirzayan program.

Stanford Science Policy Group (SSPG)

2019-2022 - Science Policy

I was the 2020-2021 president of the Stanford Science Policy group, a campus chapter of a national network of science policy groups. I operated a core organizing team of 40+ graduate students, undergraduates, postdocs, staff and faculty across six committees. SSPG organizes events and workshops on campus for students who are interested in learning about science policy and advocacy in partnership with the Public Policy Program, Stanford Law School and the Graduate School of Business. With SSPG, I grew the organization from 40 members to nearly 250 and won grants from the National Science Policy Network and Research!America. Previously, I was involved in a science policy working group, which, in partnership with Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), connected STEM graduate students and faculty with policy makers and researchers in law, public policy, and economics.