Glasgow/Interviews

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59 Second Interviews

Toby Friend

  1. How are you today?
    A but achey and sneezy, but I'll get over it.
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    A number of reasons: to take part in cutting edge research (the money); to improve my knowledge of Genetics (my bank balance); do something constructive (earn some money).
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    see 'How and why...'
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Deleting Spam from my email account.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    AI baby!
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    hackey-sack in the sun!
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    AI baby!
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Reading some books and tidying my neglected London bedroom.
  9. Tell us a secret.
    ok, but this is between everyone in the world with internet access and me!...
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    My name is Toby Friend
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    My name is Toby Friend, I said MY NAME IS TOBY FRIEND, Actually it's Louis Sanchez Fernando

Rachael Fulton

  1. How are you today?
    Fantastic.
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    I thought it would be a great experience and wanted to learn and do something that would be very interesting for the summer.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    The ability to work with people from different disciplines which i think is a completely unique oppertunity. I also learned a lot about biological modelling which I now would like to study further.
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Hopefully doing my PhD.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    AHHHHH decisions decisions. Actually £50,000 wouldn't go that far in science. I should say invest it in curing cancer or something but I would probably put it into some programme to get kids interested in science.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    The international food night Christine's Irish stew was amazing.
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    Shinyness. I mean lets be honest, shiny things are amazing.
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Working which is rubbish and taking my wee cousin to the cinema because I have no life.
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I see dead people.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    Loud, stressed, small, dizzy, annoying.
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    Is that 5,7,5? God, I am so culturally inept, ok here goes!
    I have a bad cat,
    His name is Archimedes,
    He just scratched my leg.


Mai-Britt Jensen

  1. How are you today?
    I'm alright, you?
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    How? I got asked to come along to a meeting. Why? So my brain wouldn't dry out over the summer.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    Good times. Good banter. I don't know. New techniques.
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    In my third year of my PhD.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    I would make science more accessible to the general public. I'd put more money into the media's prtrayal of science and help the public's understanding of it because there are so many misconceptions out there.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    When it works!
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    A robot to pour plates.
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Going to a Hallowe'en party and watching some scary movies.
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I find multichannel pipettes sexy.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    Curly. Danish. Odd. Green and Red!
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    What is a haiku?
    I'm not good with syllables.
    Is this good enough?

Karolis Kidykas

  1. How are you today?
    Fine Thanks!
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    I found a leaflet advertising iGEM competition in one of my lectures. It was very appealing offer. I was very interested in biology while at school but engineering won my sympathies back then. It was an opportunity to go into field I am interested in but has little to do with aerospace just before I graduate and submerge myself into professional life.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    I always thought about any form of life as of a complex machine which we will be able to control one day. This project proved it to me that I was right. Of course I may not be alive to whiteness it!
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Airbus? ESA? I love Europe, but I will consider Boeing or NASA!
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    Probably not in Biology! Sorry! I have an engineers blood
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    I could easily name the scariest one, but its hard to think of any favorite one. There were quite a few of them.
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    Antigravity Engine! Though I know it is probably impossible, but you said anything.
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Either one of four: Tennis, Travelling, Working on my project, partying
  9. Tell us a secret.
    It will no longer be a secret then.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    That would be harder then to push a camel through a needle hole.
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    Sorry, times up!

Martina Marbà

  1. How are you today?
    Fine!! Thanks..
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    Firstly, because one day I chose Glasgow for my next stop of my way.
    Secondly, because I found amazing to be involved in this new and attractive mixture of science for the study of synthetic biology.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    Wow...!! Lots of things!! First, how to work in a team (fact that usually maths or stats students we don't know what is). But scientificly speaking... lots of things as well! I'm sure that not all the things that I could learn, because in English sometimes it's more difficult to well understand everything, but I'm sure that for me it has been a lot.
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Discovering lots of new functions and effects of these molecules from the JUNK GENOME..  ;) Well, not, I'M JOKING!! But I would like be in this stage...
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    Should I invest all it in science??? ..well, I would invert it for study: "The New Ways to introduce information and knowledge in our brain (our neurons), in the shortest time", like if we were keeping hardrives in our head or something like that.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    My favourite was when we began to work in Stochastic Modelling... Or not!! The following night after bowling..Do you remember, guys?? (Chris, Maciej, Toby, Karolis)
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    It would be... an umbrella for the bike.
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Maybe I will go to "The Fire Festival" near Aberdeen.. but it isn't sure yet!
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I don't know now... but for example that.. Sometimes I am afraid to every day.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    Curious, Lazy, (moment's)Lover, Enjoyable &.. Energetic.
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    "El Pinxo li va dir al Panxo, punxa'm si, pero a la panxa no!!"  ;)


Christine Merrick

  1. How are you today?
    I'm good thanks, how are you?
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    I wanted to get loads of lab experience over the summer and asked Susan Rosser if she would take me on in her lab. She agreed to take me on over the summer and a short time later she informed me about the iGEM competition. I went to a presentation and discovered that this was exactly what I want to do. I think the concept of Synthetic Biology is very exciting and is definately something I want to be involved in while I work towards my degree.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    A whole lot! I have learned so much on a daily basis that when I think back to the start of the project I can't believe how much I've progressed. Three months ago I had never set foot in a research lab and here I am today! I think that's pretty cool.
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Hopefully two years from now I will have just finished a work placement as part of my degree in a place much sunnier than Glasgow.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    I think that basic molecular genetics should be taught as a foundation of biology in schools the same way that anatomy is. It will be in a hundred years why not make it so today? If that wasn't an option I would use it to solve the world's problems in some way, perhaps expressing drugs for the third world in plants, making biofuels improving the environment.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    Well, I really like it when we get results, and I’ve loved learning so much from the people I work with, but the international food night was my favourite. Sitting and laughing with the team from so many different backgrounds was great, especially while eating such good food. Maija’s fissu is awesome.
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    See Genesis. Only kidding. The wheel, surfing, the colour blue or maybe some way making smoke alarms tell the difference between a real fire and burned toast.
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Some home improvements, the cinema, and possibly a trip to London to see my brother -he doesn't know it yet.
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I live for the numbers round in Countdown.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    You ain’t seen nothing yet.
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    From where I’m sitting
    I see a computer screen
    With true reflection

Maija Paakkunainen

  1. How are you today?
    I'm good, just had strawberries for breakfast so I'm feeling very happy.
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    After my eventful exchange year in Scotland I still wanted more great experiences and decided to ask for summer project possibilities in Glasgow and heard about iGEM from Susan Rosser. The competition sounded challenging but good fun so i decided to apply.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    I've learned how to work with people from very different backgrounds and also discovered a great deal of new techniques and ways of attack.
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    I've graduated from my university back in Finland and hopefully doing some interesting research with a good group of people. Maybe staying abroad again and learning more things about different cultures and lifestyles.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    I'd choose a young, growing Finnish company with a great business plan and determined scientists. Possibly in cancer research because I've always found cancer an interesting and challenging thing to study.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    Whenever we get the results we're expecting or when we realise something important which gets us one step forward in our study.
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    The structure of DNA, an efficient cure for cancer, an endless cup of coffee, or maybe a self chargeable mobile phone? Nokia of course.
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    I'm going to Spain to enjoy some sun before going back to cold cold Finland.
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I collect fancy paperbags and I'd get upset if someone would fold or wrinkle them.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    Happy I came to Glasgow.
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    Haiku, what is it?
    Is it a weird poem?
    Or a tasty food?
    Google please help me,
    Wikipedia
    knows it all, always.

Scott Ramsay

  1. How are you today?
    Exhausted. We just spent the day clearing out our lab now that the project is almost finished.
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    I spoke to a lecturer after class who told me about a summer project we'd get to design ourselves and maybe win some prizes for. I thought it'd be a good opportunity to get to know what life in a lab is like before I start my PhD next year.
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    An understanding of how many times experiments go wrong before they go right!
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Hopefully still halfway through a PhD.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    Set up a scheme to take laboratory science to schools so students can see how much fun and hands-on it is.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    Making friends with the team from Edinburgh, and realising they're having setbacks too.
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    Already existing? The radio. Imagine how much money you could have made from all the technologies that rely on some sort of radio transmitters. In the future? I'd co-invent a machine that auto-thaws molecular biology reagents with Lynsey...
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    How forward!
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I love cheese and jam sandwiches.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    Tall, friendly, self-doubting, caffeine loving.
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    Haiku I must write
    But inventive I am not
    This will have to do.

Maciej Trybilo

  1. How are you today?
    Super Terrific!
  2. How and why did you get involved in the University of Glasgow iGEM Team 2007?
    I've always liked biology at school, especially genetics. I applied and they took me! :)
  3. What do you feel you have gained from working in the Glasgow iGEM Team?
    I had the opportunity to learn new things every single day and meet some brilliant people (see above).
  4. Where do you see yourself two years from now?
    Exactly two years from now I see myself enjoying a nice cup of tea (no milk) at my real job. Or maybe something else.
  5. If you had £50,000 to invest in science, what would you do with it?
    I would fund another iGEM team obviously! They are a costly lot.
  6. What has been your favourite iGEM moment so far?
    I'm sure it's bound to come on the Jamboree.
  7. If you could be the inventor of anything, what would it be?
    Geek alert! NP-complete in polynomial time!
  8. What are you doing this weekend?
    Indulging myself 'cause we're closing the Wi-ki! I will also pop in to my Kyudo practice - the way of the bow.
  9. Tell us a secret.
    I like to smell things.
  10. Describe yourself in five words.
    (1)Five (2)words (3)is (4)not (5)enough!
  11. Make up a haiku on the spot.
    Cynamon z kawą
    taki promień
    w słoiku gra rano
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