Ellen Jorgensen

Bio

Dr. Ellen Jorgensen is co-founder and Executive Director of Genspace. She is passionate about increasing science literacy in both student and adult populations, particularly in the areas of molecular and synthetic biology. She has championed the movement to provide affordable lab space for the current generation of bio-entrepreneurs. In 2011 she initiated Genspace’s award-winning curriculum of informal science education for adults in biotechnology and synthetic biology. Ellen has mentored multiple gold medal-winning teams in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition and spearheaded many of Genspace’s outreach programs such as the Alaska Barcoding Project, Mining the Gowanus Canal Microbiome, and the Yeast Chromosome Garage. Her efforts to develop Genspace into a haven for entrepreneurship, innovation and citizen science have been chronicled by Nature Medicine, Science, Discover Magazine, BBC News, Dan Rather Reports, PBS News Hour, Forbes, The Discovery Channel, and The New York Times. Ellen has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from New York University, spent many years in the biotechnology industry, and is currently adjunct faculty at New York Medical College and a Visiting Professor at The Cooper Union.