New York University IDM

PROJECTS 2023

tHrIVE

SCIENCE SANDBOX PRIZE FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WINNER

Sheila Atieno, Diedre Brown, Tori Coleman, Andi Sanchez, Anshika Srivastava

Building on the Hénaff Lab’s holobiont research, the project explores the multitude of commensal impacts that microorganisms have on human life. The team imagines a speculative future where the microbes needed for human survival in New York City fail. In response, New Yorkers use honeybees to re-inoculate the city with life-saving microbes.

Dr. Elizabeth Hénaff is a computational biologist and designer. At the center of her research is a fascination with the way living beings interact with their environment. This inquiry has produced a body of work that ranges from scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, to collaborations with landscape architects, to artist residencies in environments from SVA to the MIT Media Lab.

Her academic trajectory started with a Bachelors in Computer Science, followed by a Master’s in Plant Biology (both from UT Austin) and a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Barcelona, followed by postdoctoral work at Weill Cornell Medicine and the MIT Media Lab. More information can be found at elizabeth-henaff.net