CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Rahul Roy, PhD is an Assistant professor of Biology at St. Catherine University - a women’s centered, minority serving institution in Saint Paul, MN. He has a Masters in Plant Biotechnology from University of Hyderabad, India and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Iowa State University, USA. As a US Department of Agriculture’s Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities , he discovered novel genetic circuits that control nectar production in flowers and discovered a novel red pigment from a lizard pollinated flower from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. He got interested in Entrepreneurship as part of a class he took at Iowa State University’s CBIRC and ever since has encouraged students to think of ways to innovate and disrupt with their biological knowledge.  Besides teaching multiple courses, Rahul runs a research lab at St. Kates in close collaboration with other universities across the country researching nectar biology and root physiology. He also is piloting career readiness coursework to better help seniors in pitching to industry and academia. He is excited to usher in entrepreneurial education in the undergraduate classroom, especially encouraging increased representation of BIPOC women in these spaces.