UCL Biochemical Engineering Crook Society

Hello everyone! We have one final career talk before the term ends. Orpheus Chatzivasileiou from Ginkgo Bioworks will be joining us this Wednesday (16th of March) at 3-4pm. Get to know more about his education, career, and present work as a senior organism engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks. He will also be discussing roles at all levels (internships, full-time roles at Bachelor's, Master's, PhD level) that Ginkgo is currently recruiting for, so we welcome all students.

Dr Orpheus Chatzivasileiou was born & raised in Athens and was awarded his Diploma 5-year degree from the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2013. His Diploma thesis was conducted under Prof. Anastasia Detsi, focusing on organic chemistry. He continued his studies in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he conducted PhD research under Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos, focusing on metabolic engineering. After graduating in the spring of 2019 he joined Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. as an Organism Engineer in the Codebase department, where he has been working ever since.

Register now using the link below:
https://linktr.ee/crooksociety
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Hello everyone :) Crook Society Elections are now ongoing and nominations are now open!! Be part of an excellent committee and gain life-skills that can boost your CV by organising socials, career talks, and even working closely with the department. You can nominate yourself in the UCL student union website via the link below:

https://linktr.ee/crooksociety

Please be reminded that you have to be an official Crook Society member registered on the UCL student union website within the last 28 days to run. Please do get in contact with us through email or social media platforms if you do not meet this criteria and would still like to run.

Good luck to everyone!

Hello everyone!We hope you are enjoying your holidays 🎄🎉

We are happy to announce that our Biochemical Engineering Hoodies are out now 😊. Two different designs are available and come in different colours. Order through the link now: https://linktr.ee/crooksociety

❗Don't forget to type in the password when you order the hoodie.
‼️Last date to order is on the 17th of January

Hello everyone! Crook Society is hosting an ice skating event this coming Wednesday (1st of December) at 4pm in Somerset House! Come along and have fun with other students and maybe even show off your skills 😏. Sign up now through the link below/ https://linktr.ee/crooksociety!

Or you can go straight to the student union website as well. The tickets are only £7.20 and we hope to see you there!

It's finally the weekend 🎉!! And we would just like to make an awesome announcement to welcome our new first year representatives:

Hello! I'm Sheetal Jindal, and I'm doing the MEng Biochemical Engineering course. I'm Indian, and I grew up in Singapore. I enjoy reading, painting, and cooking (badly 😅). I love going on hikes, and I play badminton as well. One unique fact about me is that I've done a TED Talk on CRISPR 🧬🦠. As a first year rep, I look forward to organising great events, and making sure your concerns and feedback are heard!

Hello! My name is Jaanvi Gandhi and I’m a first year Bioprocessing of New Medicines (business and management) student. I’m from Mumbai, India. My hobbies are reading, swimming, playing badminton and trying different kinds of food! I’ve been so excited to explore London, especially during Christmas!!
I can’t wait to meet everyone and I’m looking forward to working with the committee this year!!

Please do not hesitate to contact them with any feedback and interesting events that Crook Society can plan for the department. We look forward to working with you both this year!

Hey there! Are you interested in sustainable food 🥩? Then come along and join us in our next career talk on the 24th of November (Wednesday) at 5pm. Max Jamilly and Mathilde Thoulouze from Hoxton Farms, a cellular agriculture company based in London where they grow cultivated fat as an ingredient for the meat alternatives industry

Max Jamilly is the co-founder of Hoxton Farms. Max has a decade’s experience in life sciences, with a PhD from Oxford in synthetic biology and two degrees from Cambridge in biotechnology and business. Before co-founding Hoxton Farms, he worked in biotech VC and consulted for deep tech, consumer healthcare and future food startups in the UK, Europe and the US.

Mathilde Thoulouze is a UCL biochemical engineer alumnus, she graduated from the MEng degree in 2019. After one year at UCB in the microbial USP process development team she joined Hoxton Farms as a bioprocess engineer. During her time at UCL she did a summer project on bioethanol from sugar beet pulp and her masters project on lab scale primary recovery.

Learn more about what they do and the opportunities they have 😊. Register now through the link:https://linktr.ee/crooksociety

See you there 😉

We hope you’re enjoying Term 1 😀. To celebrate surviving it thus far, please join Crooks Society for an afternoon snack and drink at 1.30-3.30pm in Dillons Coffee (the cafe in Waterstones). The first 25 people to sign up will get 1 free pastry + 1 free drink so hurry and sign up using the link https://linktr.ee/crooksociety 😜.

This event is open to all students in the Department of Biochemical Engineering. Please note that the form can only be filled once per person so you will be required to sign in to your google account before signing up.

Hope to see you there!

Hello everyone! How is Reading week for everyone 😉?

We have an upcoming career talk on the 17th November (Wednesday) at 3pm with Will Lewis, the Director of Onestream Bioprocess Research of GSK. He completed an EngD within our department and even held a position with Unilever. Aditi and Lewis (VP and President) will be leading the discussion, so come along with your questions and it is open to all! See you then.

Hello everyone!

There will be two upcoming career talks next week, October 27 (Wednesday) that you should look our for! We would like to thank the department for organising these talks.

The first talk will be with former alumni Dr Stefan Woodhouse and colleague Liliana Tomic from Sartorius - an international Bioprocess Solutions company. They will be taking us through the current opportunities at the company and the various areas they cover within the industry.

The second talk will be with former alumni Dr Greta Jasulaityte from MeiraGTx - a clinical stage gene therapy company. She will be talking us through her experiences in conversation with the Biochemical Engineering events committee and discussing current opportunities at the company.

The links for both talks can be found in the Student Hub in Moodle. This is a great opportunity to ask questions if you are interested in these positions in the future. See you then!

Crook Society would like to thank the freshers for attending our scavenger hunt around UCL and completing all the tasks! It must have been tough but teamwork prevailed 💪.

We would also like to congratulate Group 1 for achieving the most points throughout the scavenger hunt 🎉! The group has won £10 Amazon vouchers and we will be sending these to the members shortly. Every group did a fantastic job and would love to share a few photos from each group.

Slide 2: Group 1 taking a photo with the famous BT Tower ☺️
Slide 3: Group 1 showing their love for the BK Building
Slide 4: Group 2 recreating a famous cover album 😎. What could it be?
Slide 5: Group 3 taking a lit photo with Jeremy Bentham
Slide 6: Group 3 in Gordon Square
Slide 7: Group 4 taking a cute photo in the Main Quad ❤️
Slide 8: Group 5 taking a photo with on of our professors from our department!
Slide 9: Group 5 also recreating an iconic cover album. 🎵

Thanks to everyone for participating and we hope you look forward to our future events!

Hello everyone!

We hope that everyone had a great summer break 🌞. The Crook Society is back with new faces and we would like to introduce ourselves:

President: Lewis Cowley
Vice President: Aditi Holey
General Secretary: Fatin Abdul Fata
Treasurer: Jorge Abad Jordan
Events Secretary: Pamela Emanuelle
Social Media & Marketing Secretary: Agnes Aparte

We are really excited for this new upcoming year and will be planning events for our undergraduate students to be involved in whether it be careers or social events. Stay tuned and give us a follow here on IG, Facebook, and LinkedIn too!

Crook Society Elections 2021 are coming up next week! Those who are interested in applying but are not sure to what the role entails, swipe through the post to read a short description of each role and a quote from each current committee member.

Imagine, this could be you! Bring that one step closer to reality and apply now through the link https://linktr.ee/crooksociety. Don't forget to mark your calendars for the voting session next Wednesday (March 24) at 2pm. See you there!