People

Harrison Steel

Associate Professor of Engineering Science

Bio: Harrison received BSc (Physics/Math) and BEng (Mechanical Engineering) degrees from the University of Sydney and went on to complete a D.Phil at the University of Oxford as a Monash Scholar. After Postdoctoral research at Oxford he joined the Department of Engineering Science in 2020 as an Associate Professor and Tutorial Fellow at Harris Manchester College.
Favourite Activities: Singing (in choir), Athletics (sprinting), and Cycling. 
Links:  Twitter  –  LinkedIn  –  Google Scholar  –  Control Group  –  Department
– 2024 MPLS Award for Outstanding Research Supervision
– 2023 RAEng Young Engineer of the Year and Sir George Macfarlane Medal
– 2023 MPLS Early Career Commercial Impact Prize
– 2022 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Engineering
– 2022 Schmidt Futures European Strategy Forum Fellow

Harrison Steel

Research Fellows

Dr Idris Kempf

Postdoctoral Researcher

Bio: Idris holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich. After 3 years of industry experience, Idris pursued on a D.Phil at the University of Oxford in collaboration with Diamond Light Source. Currently, Idris is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Stipendiary Lecturer at Hertford College.
Favourite Activities: Sports (snowboarding, kitesurfing), Music (drums, clarinet), and Dancing (salsa).
Links:   Personal WebsiteGoogle ScholarGithub

D.Phil. (PhD) Research Students

Lisa Zillig

Lisa Zillig

D.Phil Student, co-supervised with Steve Kelly.

Bio: Lisa studied Biology (BSc and MSc) at the University Duisburg-Essen (Germany) and started her DPhil with the Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP at Oxford in 2019.
Favourite Activities: Rowing, Mixed Martial Arts, Cycling (long distance trips), and Formal Dinners at my College (fueling up for all the sport again).
Links:   LinkedInSteve Kelly Lab

Lisa Zillig
Miroslav Gasparek

Miroslav Gasparek

D.Phil Student, co-supervised with Antonis Papachristodoulou.

Bio: Miro received MEng in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2019. He is currently pursuing  DPhil in Engineering Science at Oxford, with a focus on Control Theory and engineering of biomolecular feedback systems.
Favourite Activities: Weightlifting (a. k. a. applied Biomechanics!), Oxford and European Synthetic Biology Societies, Entrepreneurship, Oxford Formals (to discuss everything but control theory and synthetic biology!)
Links:  Twitter  –  LinkedIn –  Personal Website

Miroslav Gasparek

Ting An Lee

D.Phil Student

Bio: Ting received a BSc in Biotechnology and an MRes in Systems & Synthetic Biology at Imperial Colllege London. He started his DPhil in Engineering Science at Oxford in 2021, with a focus on methods of controlling microbial communities.
Favourite Activities: Badminton, frisbee, and enjoying free college food.
Links:  LinkedIn

Olivia Gallupova

D.Phil Student

Bio: Olivia received an MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London and was on the 2020 Imperial iGEM team. She is currently at Wadham College pursuing a DPhil in Engineering Sciences doing research in computational methods for synthetic biology.
Favourite Activities: Playing saxophone and singing, SynBioUKselling jewelry, skiing and surfing
Links:  LinkedIn

Scott Stacey

D.Phil Student, co-supervised with Antonis Papachristodoulou.

Bio: Scott received a BSc in Biological Sciences with a year in industry from Imperial College London. He is currently at Lincoln College on Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP, with his research focusing on understanding and engineering Sponge RNAs in Bacteria. 
Favourite Activities: Football; SynBio Society; enjoying Oxfordshire countryside; environmental rep for Lincoln’s MCR; far too many formal dinners.
Links:  LinkedIn

Jessica James

D.Phil Student

Bio: Jess studied a BSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Bath, including a yearlong industrial placement. She went on to study an MSc in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology at Imperial College London, and now pursues a DPhil in Engineering Science.
Favourite Activities: Wild swimming (currently on the look out for spots in Oxford!), camping trips, painting (mostly watercolour), making her own clothes.
Links:  LinkedIn

Kirill Sechkar

D.Phil Student

Bio: Kirill received an MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London in 2022. He is currently at The Queen’s College pursuing a DPhil in Engineering Science, investigating how different synthetic gene circuits interact with each other and with the cell hosting them.
Favourite Activities: Hiking around the spectacular English countryside, writing and reading poetry and prose.
Links:  LinkedInTwitter

Sebastian Towers

D.Phil Student

Bio: Sebastian studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Oxford, before starting a DPhil with the AIMS CDT in 2021. He is currently under the co-supervision of Harrison Steel and Jakob Foerster, instigating the intersection of machine learning and evolving biological systems.
Favourite Activities: Ultimate frisbee, cooking, board and video games , YouTube edu-tainment.

Marco Corrao

D.Phil Student

Bio: Marco received a MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London in 2021. He then joined Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP for his DPhil, working at the interface of modelling, control and automation in the context of adaptive laboratory evolution.
Favourite Activities: Running, swimming, playing guitar, and volunteering
Links:  LinkedIn

Frank Yu

Part-time D.Phil Student

Bio:Frank received his HBSc in health and disease and MSc in physiology from the University of Toronto. His past experience was in large animal and human ex situ heart perfusion systems. He is now at St. Edmund Hall pursuing a part-time DPhil in Engineering Science. His main research focus is on mammalian bioreactors
Favourite Activities:Building water cooled computers, snowboarding, non-profit engagement, and swimming
Links:  LinkedIn

Marina Luchner

D.Phil Student, co-supervised with M.Wood and S. Sanders

Bio: Marina studied Biochemistry (BSc) at the Technical University of Munich (Germany) with a stint as visiting student at the University of Oxford. She then returned to Oxford to pursue the Interdisciplinary Biosciences Doctoral Training Programme, focusing on machine-learning assisted protein engineering.
Favourite Activities:Rowing, running, and cooking with housemates (see Gabriel Abrahams).
Links:  LinkedIn

Gabriel Abrahams

D.Phil Student

Bio: Gabriel received a BSc in physics/maths and an MSc in physics both from the University of Melbourne. Prior to moving to Oxford he was a research assistant at RMIT investigating quantum sensing. He is currently pursuing a DPhil on the Interdisciplinary Biosciences DTP, focusing on protein engineering.
Favourite Activities: Hiking, piano, and cooking with housemates (see Marina Luchner).
Links:  LinkedInGoogle ScholarGithub

Vicente Trelles Fernandez

D.Phil Student

Bio: Vicente received a BSc from The University of Edinburgh in 2020 and an MSc from ETH Zurich in 2023, both in Biotechnology. He is now pursuing a DPhil in Engineering Science, investigating ways to improve directed evolution methods in bacteria. 
Favourite Activities: Karate, Writing
Links:  LinkedIn

Jan Morlock

Masters Student

Bio: Jan received a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2021. As part of his Master’s in Robotics, Systems, and Control at ETH Zurich, he is currently focusing on modeling and control of microbial communities.
Favourite Activities:Handball, Beach volleyball, Triathlon, and enjoying amazing British food.
Links:  LinkedIn

Photo Gallery

Most of the group at SynBioUK 2023 in Bristol (November 2023)

Group visit to Hardwick Hall while en route to SynBioUK 2022 (November 2022)

Alumni

Dr Simona Della Valle

Finished Oct 2023, co-supervised with Wei Huang.

Bio: Simona started her DPhil in 2018 at Oxford’s SynBio CDT, with research focusing on engineering bacteria for sustainable biomanufacturing. She subsequently took up a postdoctoral position at the University of Western Australia.
Favourite Activities: Powerlifting with the Linacre Ladies that Lift, birdwatching, and performing stand-up comedy.
Links:  Twitter 

Dr John Allan

Postdoctoral Researcher 2022-2024

Bio: John worked with our team as a postdoctoral researcher, developing microbial communities for biomanufacturing, and understanding their behaviours in Chi.Bio reactors. He subsequently took up a permanent teaching position at Newcastle College.
Favourite Activities: Drawing and painting, reading and buying books, walking and cycling. Community Biotech.
Links:   Twitter