Dr. Natalie Farny earned a B.S. in Biology and Philosophy from Boston College, and a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Dr. Farny completed her postdoctoral work at UMass Chan Medical School. She first became engaged with synthetic biology as an iGEM team mentor, then went on to be a judge, and served as co-chair of the iGEM Measurement Committee. Dr. Farny is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology and Biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her lab studies the relationship between cells and their environments in many contexts. She is particularly interested the application of synthetic biology to understanding and remediating environmental contaminants. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Early Career Award, and the WPI Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding Teaching. Her lab is funded by the NIH, NSF, EPA, DARPA, and ARL.