Indie Lab pt. 3 (Team)
(To see pt. 1 click here)
Team
John Slavin, PhD., Director and Co-founder
Dr. Slavin graduated from the College of William and Mary with high honors, obtaining a B.S. In Chemistry. He then obtained his Doctorate in Analytical Chemistry at Purdue University. During his career he has focused his attentions on undergraduate education, both in curriculum development as well as instruction. While at Purdue University be worked with the Center for Authentic Science Practices in Education to develop novel undergraduate laboratories and has spent 5 years working within community and 4-year college systems. In addition to work in education, Dr. Slavin spent time in postdoctoral studies as a visiting scholar at Northwestern University and as a postdoctoral research assistant at University of Wisconsin- Madison. His research interests include new methods for the production of chemical catalysts and the use of quantum materials in technologies.
Elliot Roth, Treasurer and Co-founder
Elliot brings 5 years of business creation and analytical skills to the team. A recent graduate of VCU in Biomedical Engineering, Elliot has skills in web, product, and electronics design, as well as business, communication and team management. During his schooling, he was trained at Stanford’s d.School to catalyze innovation communities of entrepreneurial thinkers. His projects have gone on to win multiple startup competitions and grants with a combined earnings of over $108,200. He has worked in multiple labs on synthetic biology projects.
Grace Cummings, Secretary and Co-founder
Grace will soon graduate VCU with a degree in Physics. She has led the success of the TEDxVCU team, an event that raised over $35,000 in 2015 with a team of 22 students, 40 volunteers, 14 speakers and 1,000 attendees. Recently, she led the TEDxVCU team again to success with their 2016 event. She has experience in two biophysics labs and spent an entire summer working on nanopore sensing under a UROP grant. This past summer, she interned at Fermi Lab. Grace plans to go to grad school for high energy physics.
Michael Wierzbicki, Technology Officer
Michael has a MSc in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Tennessee. He has worked as a process engineer for Merck, an environmental and quality assurance manager for Vireol Bio Energy, and recently became a technical service representative at DuPont Industrial Biosciences. He published his master’s thesis in Applications of Synthetic Biology for Increasing Anaerobic Biodiesel Production in Escherichia coli.
