Instructor
Biological Engineering
Dr. Maxine Jonas is an instructor in the Department of Biological Engineering, and one of its alumnae. After undergraduate studies at Ecole Polytechnique in France, Maxine completed in 2006 her PhD in BE under the mentorship of Prof. Peter So. She then embarked on working in the biotech industry in the Boston area, both in start-up and in large company environments, for seven years prior to returning to MIT campus. Maxine’s interests include biological imaging, biophysics, neurotechnology, computational modeling, drug metabolism, and education. She currently teaches lab-focused courses (20.109, 20.203, 20.309, 20.345), lecture-instructed classes (20.310, 20.430), and seminars (SP.247). Maxine has particularly enjoyed meeting a wide cross-section of BE scholars since she joined the Communication Lab in 2014. Outside of troubleshooting mutagenesis plasmids or realigning students’ microscopes, Maxine loves theater plays, in books or live, daydreaming in museums, and loves water: swimming, sailing, riding her bike in the rain, skiing on the northeastern ha’d-packed or in the spring slush, skydiving through clouds, and drinking bubbly water.