Student Fellows
Victoria Chen
- PhD candidate
- 2025 - 2026 Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellow for Water Solutions
- Biological Engineering Department
Victoria Chen is a doctoral candidate in Professor Christopher Voigt’s lab in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. Before coming to chilly Boston, she earned a bachelor of science degree in biological engineering from the California Institute of Technology in sunny Pasadena. During her undergraduate studies, Victoria worked in Professor Richard Murray’s lab to develop improved genetic engineering tools and a novel way of deploying bacteria in soil environments using nematodes as a carrier. Outside the lab, Victoria can be found in a Dungeons & Dragons session, taking drone photos, or doing some 3D printing.
Victoria’s research studies how bacteria can be genetically engineered to help clean polluted water, with an emphasis on figuring out the real-world impacts of releasing engineered bacteria into natural environments. Looking through both a biological and historical lens, her work investigates a unique case study of engineered bacteria being used to clean up toxic phenols in Soviet-occupied Estonia to explore the potential risks and benefits of such technologies.