Ava Karanjia is a current PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, where her research focuses on building transcriptional programs for consortia and metabolic engineering applications.
Degrees in chemical engineering and microbiology from ASU, where she worked on quorum sensing regulatory systems and other transcriptional activators. This led her to an internship at NASA Ames Research Center, where she screened and engineered non-traditional yeast candidates for in-situ microbial space technologies.
Ava is a big proponent of science communication and has been actively involved in DEI outreach efforts at the University of Washington.
In her free time, she enjoys being outside, cooking, and taking care of her indoor garden