Kristin Ellis

Originally from rural Alabama, Kristin attended UAB to study biochemistry and molecular biology, and avoided graduate school by moving to Houston, TX to find a biotech-adjacent job. While there, she worked at the cutting edge of biomarker discovery and T cell engineering, coordinating scientific pipeline development and clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She spent her spare time learning about open-source ecosystems and community building by organizing hackathons, museum nights, and start-up meetups.

Now, she leverages that experience to make scientific research more open, collaborative, reproducible and accessible, working with scientists and biohackers over the world to develop automated workflows on the Opentrons platform. Her passion for open science, community building, and creating opportunities for women in STEM continues through her membership in Genspace NYC and events like Science Hack Day NYC, the NASA Space Apps Challenge, and other community initiatives.