Pratt Institute

Dr Sandra Piesik is an award-winning New York-based architect, author, and scientist specializing in a diverse range of subjects from art and design to nature-based solutions, innovation, the technology transfer of biomaterials, and contemporary adaptation of traditional knowledge. She is the founder of 3 ideas consultancy and her diverse global engagements range from leading research and development projects, international lectures, judging competitions, and the nomination of awards. Dr Piesik is a Visiting Assistant Professor, at Pratt Institute Graduate Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design as well as The School of Architecture & Design NYIT and the SETI Institute Artist in Residence Affiliate. She is also a stakeholder and network member of several UN and EU organizations including UNFCCC: the Nairobi Work Programme (NWP), the Paris Committee on Capacity Building (PCCB), the Climate and Technology Centre & Network (CTCN), and the EU’s New European Bauhaus initiative. Her published work includes: ‘HABITAT: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Climate’.

Lars Dietrich, Ph.D., is an associate professor in biological sciences at Columbia University. He carried out his doctoral research in the laboratory of Christian Ungermann at the University of Heidelberg, studying the biochemistry of membrane dynamics in yeast. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dianne Newman’s laboratory at Caltech and MIT, Dietrich studied the interplay between metabolism and multicellular development in the major pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In 2010 Dietrich joined the faculty at Columbia, where his research group investigates physiological heterogeneity and antibiotic tolerance in P. aeruginosa biofilms and aggregates. Through collaborations with researchers in various fields, the Dietrich lab has developed a broad repertoire of techniques enabling characterization of structural and chemical heterogeneity in bacterial multicellular samples.