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About the team
We are the team iGEM Costa_Rica! We are just a few people with great ambitions from three different universities, the University of Costa Rica, the National University and the Costa Rican Institute of Technology. We all met by chance at different circumstances, such as tiny Synthetic Biology competitions in the ITCR, by a guy who met a guy, or because we were close friends long ago.
We work as a team since the first moment we decided to participate in iGEM, because we all had this simple dream… Develop a nice project that will allow us to become iGEMers and represent our small and beautiful country: Costa Rica.
Anthony Mora Sandí
Industrial Bioprocess Engineering and Biology
Student of Industrial Bioprocess Engineering and Biology. He is intern in the Microalgae Biotechnology Lab at UNA.
His major interests are the design of biotechnology processes, genetic engineering and dinosaurs. Also, he is passionate about photobiology and science communication.
He has the ability of making new friends wherever and whenever he goes.
Thony is our “walking party”, the proof that party and science can get along together!
María José Durán González
Biotechnology Engineering
Student of Biotechnology Engineering and assistant in the Structural Biology Lab of the Biotechnology Research Center, ITCR.
Her area of interest is, undoubtedly, proteins, its structure and molecular interactions. Also, she hopes to dedicate to the study of the relation of them with human pathologies.
We still don’t understand if she want to be a scientist, a tap dance teacher, an event organiser or, as she believes, an accent mimic.
She is our “fierce machine”. If Majo puts an objective in mind, she will use all his means and move the whole world to achieve it and always achieves it. His personality is incredible, everyone should have a Majo in their lives.
Diego Rojas Gätjens
Microbiology
Student of Microbiology and intern in the Molecular Biology Laboratory of CENIBiot.
His interests are environmental microbiology and molecular biology. Also, he is passionate about metagenomics and the study of macromolecules.
He has the gift of saying the most awkward and least appropriate comments in the right moment.
Diego is our goofy, if you want to hang out with him, you have to learn to eat roasted chicken first.
Paula Thiel Pizarro
Biotechnology Engineering
Student of Biotechnology Engineering and assistant in the Artificial Intelligent Lab for Natural Science, ITCR
Pau is passionate about Synthetic Biology. One of her hobbies is studying physics, and recently, she has discovered her interest for computing. In addition, she likes to read about dystopias and "gossips" in science.
She isn’t a social networks lover, but although nobody believes it, a few days ago she came to the dark side and opened instagram and twitter.
She's the most determined and a go-getter. At first, you might be a bit intimidated by such determination and knowledge, but it's just a matter of time before you get to know the funnier, goofier Pau. If you want to get a smile from her, buy her a "pingüinito" (choco-muffin), three mini-hersheys after lunch or jellys.
Pablo Delgado Navarro
Biotechnology Engineering
Student of Biotechnology Engineer, also assistant in the Synthetic Biology Laboratory and Bio-entrepreneur Laboratory
His interests are synthetic and systems biology. Moreover, he is passionate about science fiction and martial arts.
His fascination of figuring out how things work comes from a childhood trauma of breaking toys apart and don’t know how to put the pieces together.
Pablo is the “sensei” of our team, he is the one who knows how to conserve sanity in times of chaos.
Juliana Artavia Camacho
Industrial Design Engineering
She is an Industrial Design Engineering student and research assistant at the Media Lab at TEC.
Her area of interest is communication and interaction design. She also enjoys working on user experience and user interface design.
She loves travelling to new places and one of her favorite activities is swimming. Juli is the cutest of the team. She has the magical power to interpret the crazy ideas that come out and translate them graphically. Juli is in charge of embellishing diffEASY.
Adrián Garnier Artiñano
Computer Engineering
Computer Engineering student and assistant in the PARMA group.
His area of greatest interest is computer science, specifically, deep learning and pattern recognition.
He loves audio and one of his favorite activities is playing board games, especially Dungeons and Dragons.
He is our “computín”, one of the most geeks of the team (and that’s a huge thing to say).
Ignacio Padilla Barrientos
Mathematics
Student of Pure Mathematics and Graduated of Materials Engineering.
His main interest is model theory. Also, he has taken one or two courses in organic chem and mathematical modeling.
His hobbies include arguing with strangers on Facebook comments and reading random Wikipedia articles.
He is “The Mathematician” of our team. Nacho is a grad student and a proffesor, he has traveled to different countries to work on mathematics and believe it or not, he is still an undergrad.