iGEM Digest - Letter From The Guest Editor

By Nannan Jiang, iGEM instructor for the 2018 University of Tennessee iGEM team 

Dear Readers, 

Though having completed a bachelors and masters in biology, I was first exposed to iGEM when I had the opportunity to serve as an iGEM instructor for the 2018 University of Tennessee iGEM team. During my PhD in environmental sustainability, I began to realize that perhaps the sustainability of science itself takes precedence. Who will continue science when the current generation of scientists retire? I now strongly believe that students are at the heart of accomplishing this goal, which is why iGEM is truly all about the students. I have seen commendable growth in my own students J. Scott Dixon, Brandon D. Kristy, Molly E. Landon, Ralph B. Laurel, Karl D. Leitner, and Morgan T. Street following their iGEM experience, and hope they too may one day serve as mentors for others.

Admittedly, I did not quite understand the scientist’s role in society until joining the Bredesen Center PhD program. This interdisciplinary graduate program taught me the necessity of science communication and STEM outreach in pursuing science. As the purpose of science is to benefit society, we are appropriately obligated to share our results in a readily digestible fashion to the public we seek to benefit. We further explore this idea in Issue 4 of the iGEM Digest by focusing on accessibility in the field of Synthetic Biology. Among other topics, we take a closer look at the accomplishments of the 2018 Shanghai United International School (SUIS) iGEM team. In this particular article, we discuss with students Kewei Lin, Yutong Xu, and Zhizhu Zhang, along with their SUIS iGEM instructor David Doyle, on redefining biology as an engineering discipline from a classroom setting.

It is my privilege to serve as guest editor for iGEM Digest, and former iGEM instructor. I hope the Digest will help recruit new students and mentors to form future teams, serve as a platform to share both success stories and resources to overcome challenges, demonstrate how iGEM can be career-changing or in some cases career-defining, and to remind us that science should be driven by the outward motivation of benefiting others.

Sincerely, 

Nannan Jiang
Guest Editor