Ranee is a Ph.D. student in the Nugen Research Group. She is from Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston, Jamaica. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from The University of the West Indies, Mona. Her undergraduate research was focused on the effectiveness of different protein purification methods. She has also done work on the types of cannabinoids found in types of cannabis plants. After undergrad, Ranee worked in the Food Science and Food Safety industry in Jamaica in an ISO 17025 accredited lab, where she worked on pathogen detections, quality control, new product launches and shelf life analysis projects. At Cornell University, she currently works on developing phage-based biosensors for detection, separation and concentration of Salmonella in water and agricultural systems.   

Caitlin is a Ph.D. Candidate originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She received her Bachelor of Science in Food Science with minors in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Delaware. There her undergraduate research focused on screening chicken gut microbiota for bacteria with probiotic potential. At Cornell she is continuing to pursue her passion for improving human and animal health. Her current projects focus on utilizing synthetic biology to engineer bacteriophages as antibiotic alternatives and biosensors for bacteria detection. 

Joshua is a Ph.D. student in the Goddard Research Group at Cornell University from Springfield, Illinois, USA. He received his Associate of Science in Engineering Science at Lincoln Land Community College and his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his associate studies, he worked at Agridyne, LLC as a laboratory technician who assessed the quality of liquid cow feed supplements. During his bachelor studies, he worked in the Harley Lab developing multiphasic biomaterials to guide mesenchymal stem cell differentiation towards osteotendinous junction cells. Outside of academia, he also has work experience as a research assistant at iBiocat, Inc. and as a production engineer intern at Archer Daniels Midland. He currently works on developing immobilized enzyme systems for the valorization of food waste streams.