stephen harris

Dr. Stephen Harris received a BS in molecular genetics from Ohio State University in 2006, an MA in science education from the City College of New York in 2009, and a PhD in evolutionary biology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, in 2015. Before pursuing his Phd, he was a high school science teacher in New York City, and the lack of meaningful science experiences available to his students led to a passion for democratizing science. His goal is to build science capacity by using the latest innovations in biotechnology to build portable, low-cost, and user-friendly sequencing labs for research and education. His PhD research allowed him to perform field work in urban ecosystems in New York City, coral reefs in the Florida Keys and Belize, and tropical forests in Indonesia, allowing him to carry his mobile lab to traditionally scientifically-underserved areas and conduct DNA barcoding workshops. He can currently fit his mobile lab in two suitcases and is working on being able to reduce that down to a backpack for true mobile DNA sequencing. Starting in spring 2018 he will be an Assistant Professor of Biology and Biotechnology at Purchase College, SUNY. He will continue to build science capacity through his non-profit, BioBelize, and other DNA barcoding initiatives while pursuing research that uses genomics and bioinformatics to study the evolution, ecology, and behavior of natural populations in response to environmental change.