Julie McDonald is a PhD candidate in the MIT Biology Department. She studies directed evolution and protein engineering in Prof. Matthew Shoulders’ group, particularly focusing on translational applications in sustainability. She is currently working to engineer photosynthetic enzymes in plants for enhanced performance, with the goal of producing easily scalable carbon drawdown technology.
Julie was born and raised in New York and obtained her B.A. in biochemistry from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She is passionate about scientific communication and has participated in the Whitehead Institute’s High School Teacher Program to help design high school biology curricula and is a mentor for the Genes in Space high school science competition. Outside of the scientific world, Julie likes to watch and play sports, be outdoors, and travel.