Xing “Xingularity” Xiong

Born in the ghettos of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), Xing Xiong had an aptitude for physics and hardcore rapping. He was spitting out rhymes by the age of two and three quarters, and upon reaching high school, was dubbed “Xingularity” by his peers. Xing brought his rhymes to Cornell, and during his interview for joining the Cornell GEM team, his rap performance was so phenomenal that he immediately took over as Team Leader, no questions asked.

Bernard “Big Ben” Cammarata

Originating from the small town of Southborough, Massachusetts, Ben always had big things on his mind. Like real big. Cornell big. After being accepted into Cornell in 2007 (he is currently a junior BEE major), Ben set his sights on curing all the world’s problems. How did he plan on doing this? Well, establishing a universal dictatorship solely under his control did not work out so well, so he decided to join the Cornell Genetically Engineered Machines team instead.

Alyssa “Adrenaline” Henning

Born in the town of Bakersfield, California, Alyssa rode her first roller coaster at the age of six months. Her second roller coaster ride is scheduled for when she gets off her first; she has been riding the same roller coaster continuously for her entire life. Somehow, she managed to ace high school, get accepted into Cornell, and join the iGEM team, all from the seat of her 3 by 3 coaster car. How does she go to the bathroom? It’s a very simple process: magic. Since she is unable to leave her coaster car, she will be sending a surrogate to the jamboree in her place.

Malinka Walaliyadde

Malinka Walaliyadde was born in Sri Lanka but moved to the UAE when he was 6 months old and basically grew up there. He is currently a junior at Cornell University and is a confused Materials Science Engineering major who has an almost unhealthy interest in molecular biology. When he applied to the GEM team as a freshman, the team leader at the time was hesitant about taking him on because he couldn’t handle a pipette, let alone clone stuff. However his awesomeness shone through and he was let in, which was a good thing because he has continued to be awesome ever since.

Maneesh "The Mathemagical Beast" Gupta

The brainchild of a Cornell mathematics student and the number 42, Maneesh is the result of the cross product between complex eigenvectors and the spherical coordinate system. Needless to say Maneesh can only communicate to others by using Fourier Transforms. Being a beast of mathematics Maneesh tested out of every single math class that was offered at Cornell. He then became the head of the Mathematics department but was quickly fired after it was discovered that he was using Taylor series expansions on undergrads. When asked why he wanted to join the Cornell Genetically Engineered Machines team he responded by solving the Schrödinger equation for E. Coli.

Deborah Liu

Deborah is a sophomore Chemical Engineer from San Francisco, California. She’s usually described as "way too intense", but is working on being more amiable. If not working on problem sets or making/eating delicious food, she can always be found not getting enough sleep or correcting other people’s grammar.