Ryan Putnam

College of Engineering

Biological Engineering

Ryan Putman was raised in Vancouver, WA before coming to Logan to start his undergraduate degree in Biological Engineering. He began his undergraduate research in the Biological Engineering department at the Sustainable Waste-to-Bioproducts Engineering Center (SWBEC), directed by Dr. Ron Sims. Ryan gained further experience in Dr. Jixun Zhan’s Metabolic Engineering Laboratory, working with graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to engineer metabolic pathways in microorganisms. Beginning in July 2012 he began research in the Cellular Engineering Laboratory as a member of the Utah State iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) team, both headed by Dr. Charles Miller. Ryan has now participated in this undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition for three years, with the team winning Gold Medals each year as well as the award for the Best Manufacturing Project at the 2012 international competition held at MIT. Under the mentorship of Dr. Miller, Ryan has presented his research at more than 20 local, national and international conferences, taking home multiple awards for both poster and podium presentations. He is an author of one peer-reviewed paper that has been accepted for publication and an author of another manuscript that is currently in the submission process for the Journal of Synthetic Biology. The 2015 calendar year will be Ryan’s third year elected as the Undergraduate Student Councilor for the Institute of Biological Engineering.