Panelist Biographies

Rachel Armstrong, of Newcastle University (U.K.) stands near a beach at night.

Rachel Armstrong, Professor of Experimental Architecture at Newcastle University

Rachel Armstrong is professor of experimental architecture at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, who explores how buildings can incorporate some of the properties of living systems to become "living architectures." She was coordinator for the FET Open Living Architecture project (April 2016-June 2019) and coordinates the EU Innovation Fund ALICE project. She is a Rising Waters II Fellow with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (April-May 2016) and a 2010 Senior TED Fellow. She is also a member of the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment at Newcastle University and director and founder of the Experimental Architecture Group (EAG), whose work has been published and exhibited internationally.

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Grace Chuang

Grace Chuang, Creative & Marketing, Ginkgo Bioworks Inc.

Grace Chuang identifies as working at the intersection of a mix of interdisciplinary areas: storytelling, design, engineering, biology and photography. She is a core member of the Creative Team at Ginkgo Bioworks, tasked with bringing stories of synthetic biology to life through creative collaborations and helping visualize a world where we design with nature to grow products. She is also the founding editor and art director of Grow by Ginko, a long-form illustrated magazine produced with Massive Science. She received her  B.S. in Chemical Engineering summa cum laude from Cornell University.

Maria Paz Gutierrez, Associate Professor in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley

Maria-Paz Gutierrez, Associate Professor of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley

Maria Paz Gutierrez, Associate Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program of Architecture at UC Berkeley, is an architect and researcher focused on nature and multifunctional material systems aimed at addressing pressing 21st century environmental and socioeconomic challenges. Her research group BIOMS, pioneers the physical and cultural implication of functional natural and living materials. These functional natural materials are designed from the nano to the macro scale to transform the health and resilience of the built environment. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals, including Science and Scientific Reports (Nature), exhibited nationally and internationally, and widely covered in the press, including in Science Nation. Her exhibitions include the Oslo Architectural Triennale 2014 and the Field Museum in Chicago. Gutierrez’s prestigious accolades include the 2010 Emerging Frontiers of Research Innovation Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation 2014 Buckminster Fuller Award semifinalist. Gutierrez is a Fulbright NEXUS Scholar and was appointed as Senior Fellow of the Energy Climate Partnership of the Americas by the U.S. Department of State from 2011-2016. Gutierrez has two provisional patents and two forthcoming books, Regeneration Wall (2021 Routledge) and Across Sections.

Amy Youngs

Amy Youngs, Associate Professor of Art, The Ohio State University

Amy M. Youngs creates biological art, interactive sculptures, and digital media works that explore relationships between technology and our changing concept of nature and self. Her research interests include: interactions with plants and animals, technological nature follies, constructed ecosystems, and seeing through the eyes of machines. Youngs has exhibited her works nationally and internationally at venues such as the Te Papa Museum in New Zealand, the Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre in Norway, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. She has lectured widely at venues such as the Australian Center For the Moving Image in Australia and the Walker Art Center. She has published articles in Leonardo and Antennae and her work was profiled in the book, Art in Action, Nature, Creativity & our Collective Future. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently an Associate Professor of Art at The Ohio State University, where she teaches media arts and eco arts courses.