People | PoET

Faculty
	Kenneth Oye is Director of the MIT Program on Emerging Technologies (PoET), with a joint appointment in Political Science and Engineering Systems. Professor Oye serves as Director of Policy and Practices in the NSF Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SynBERC), Chair of the Safety Committee of iGEM, a faculty research lead at the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation, a member of the NRC Board on Global Science and Technology, and a member of the IRGC Scientific Advisory Board. In 2012-2013, he served as an invited expert with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on pharmaceuticals innovation and on the WHO consultation on Dual Use Research of Concern.
	Michael M. J. Fischer is a Professor of Anthropology and Science & Technology Studies at MI, working between technology and anthropology. His works include Experimental Futures: Technological Lives, Scientific Arts, Anthropological Voices.


Team
	Evan Appleton, is a is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Church Lab at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include computer-aided design, automation, developmental biology, and biosecurity.
	Peter Carr is a Senior Scientist located at MIT Lincoln lab and we are interested in editing DNA at the genome level for novel cellular functions.
	Kelly Drinkwater is the iGEM staff member with responsibility for addressing safety, security and environmental issues. She has worked with Natalie Kuldell on Bio-Builder and with the MIT SynBIO policy group on environmental, safety and security issues.
	Kevin Esvelt is the Technology Development Fellow of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Kevin is a co-developer of the CRISPR/Cas9 system for targeted genome editing and regulation.
	Sam Weiss Evans research focuses on the ways that security concerns are constructed and governed within emerging technology, with a particular emphasis at the moment on synthetic biology. He is a Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholar with theoretical specialties in classification, boundary work, international political/technological institutions, and the co-production of social and technological systems. He is an Assistant Research Professor at Tufts University’s Program on Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and a Research Fellow in Harvard's STS Program. Find out more on his website: evansresearch.org
	Todd Kuiken is a Senior Program Associate with the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. His work treats emerging environmental and safety issues associated with synthetic biology and nanotechnology.
	Shlomiya B Lightfoot is a MIT ESD Doctoral Student and graduate of the MIT Technology Policy Program graduate working on environmental implications of applications of synthetic biology.
	Allen Lin is a Doctoral student in systems biology at Harvard, returning to Boston after two years as a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge. As a UROP and grad student at MIT, he worked on safety, security & environmental aspects of synthetic biology.
	Caroline Liu is a double major in Materials Science & Engineering and Political Science at MIT. This strange combination can be explained by her desire to improve policies governing science and technology, after spending years picking them apart as a debater, and interest in biomaterials and polymer research. She argues that the appeal of the two fields is that both require an understanding of the innate structure and properties of the system before a solution can be developed to resolve a problem currently plaguing the system. Formerly, she was a nationally ranked debater, consistently placing in the Top 25 at national debate tournaments. Currently, she is an undergraduate researcher, identifying issues and gaps in regulatory policies and also conducting research on polymeric thin films at the Molecular Engineering Lab in conjunction with Novartis to develop a more sustainable drug manufacturing process.
	Jeantine Lunshof is a philosopher and bioethicist, Assistant Professor in the Dept of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen (Netherlands) and Ethics Consultant to the Church lab at Harvard Medical School, she works on normative aspects of synthetic biology. Jeantine holds a Marie Curie Fellowship, and is an Associate Faculty Member of the Harvard Center for Bioethics.
	Aleksandra Malyska is working as postdoctoral fellow to Professor Kenneth Oye. Aleksandra is double major in Biotechnology and Psychology and obtained a PhD with a thesis on the social determinants on commercialization of biotech Innovation in the context of social determinants.
	Lawrence McCray
	Amelia R Mockett is a MIT Biological Engineering student and UROP working on policy issues. In the summer of 2014 she conducted research on funding for synthetic biology as an intern with the Woodrow Wilson Center.
	Yusuke Mori is a specialist at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan and a MPA candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Yusuke is working on a political aspect of Synthetic Biology at Kenneth Oye’s lab. He received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering with the research on the development of an RNA synthetic genetic circuit in 2011 from the University of Tokyo and also has a publication of the technology assessment report on the situation of Synthetic Biology in Japan.
Megan Palmer	William J. Perry Fellow in International Security at Stanford University, Deputy Director of Policy and Practices at SynBERC and director of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Accelerator Program (SynBio LeAP).
Robert Reardon	Assistant Professor of Public Policy at North Carolina State University working on security issues associated with nuclear, cyber and biological technologies. He has worked at RAND and the Harvard Belfer Center.
	Nicholas Short is a graduate student in the Technology and Policy Program, working as a research assistant to Professor Kenneth Oye. Nick's background is in intellectual property law. He has a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and practiced for seven years litigating patent and trade secret cases in state and federal court before coming to MIT. His current research focuses on designing effective intellectual property policies that promote innovation in biotechnology and synthetic biology.
	Samantha Zyontz is a Doctoral candidate at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. She works on intellectual property rights issues in the Neil Ferguson group within the program on technological innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic management.

Program Alumni

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