Dr. Elizabeth Hénaff is a computational biologist with an art practice. 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.
At the center of her work 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 projects with landscape architects, to working as an artist in environments from SVA to the MIT Media Lab. She has made contributions to understanding how plants respond to the force of gravity, how genome structure changes in response to stress, and most recently has turned her attention to the ubiquitous and invisible microbial component of our environment. Some recent highlights include the design for the bioremediation of a local toxic Superfund site which won a design competition, had a gallery exhibit, and a scientific publication. Her work with the MIT Media Lab led to the development of a novel approach to urban microbiome sampling using honeybees, an exhibit at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, and a curriculum for international workshops. Most recently, she has shown work at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in NYC and the Detroit Science Gallery. She has consistently made the tools - software, wetware, hardware - needed to answer her research questions.
She currently holds an Assistant Professor position in the Technology, Culture and Society department at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in New York City.
Elizabeth’s Projects
Title | Type | Venue | Date | People | Topics | Projects | Link |
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TalkConference PresentationPoster PresentationSymposium | 06/15/2025 → 06/27/2025 | Alma Rocha Phoebe Mankiewicz Diedre Brown Hao-Wei Shih Karolina Sulich Elizabeth Hénaff |
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TalkPoster PresentationSymposium | Bioremediation Symposium 2025 | 06/24/2025 |
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TalkExhibit | Museum of Modern Art | 06/13/2025 |
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Exhibit | NYU Tanodn | 04/25/2025 | Elizabeth Hénaff Caroline Chou Karolina Sulich Seba Alabdullatif Hao-Wei Shih Yuwei Chen |
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Press | Popular Science | 04/15/2025 | Elizabeth, Chandrima | ||||
Podcast | Grow Everything | 11/26/2024 | |||||
Exhibit | Sensuous Planet | 09/27/2024 | Elizabeth | ||||
Press | ART SPIEL | 11/21/2024 | |||||
Talk | BioBAT ArtSpace | 11/01/2024 | Channel | ||||
Talk | Booklyn Waterfront Research Center, BioBAT | 11/22/2024 | Channel | ||||
Press | MS-NBC | 10/16/2024 | |||||
Critical Acclaim | Bocce Ball Films | 08/01/2024 |
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Publication | Scientific Reports | 10/11/2024 |
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Exhibit | Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art | 08/21/2023 → 11/18/2023 | Elizabeth | ||||
Publication | Journal of Applied Microbiology | 04/15/2025 | Elizabeth | ||||
Publication | Genes | 10/18/2022 | |||||
Publication | Water Resources Research | 05/01/2024 | Elizabeth | ||||
Service | New Inc, New York | 09/21/2024 | |||||
Conference Presentation | What’s Around Design? Conference, Speculative Biofutures Track, Algarve, Portugal | 10/08/2024 → 10/11/2024 |
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Award | NYU Tandon | 08/15/2024 | NYU Tandon Faculty Excellence Awards | ||||
Conference Presentation | Spatial Humanities Conference, Bamberg, Germany | 09/27/2024 → 09/27/2024 |
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PressOutreach | NYU Tandon Newsletter | 05/13/2024 |
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Conference PresentationNYU seminar | NYU Urban Research Day, New York, NY | 03/06/2024 |
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Conference Presentation | 52nd International Conference on Urban Affairs, New York, NY | 04/25/2024 | Diedre Brown Progga Nabiha Bhuiyan Harry Trethowan Tori Coleman Elizabeth Hénaff | , Resilient Cities |
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Exhibit | Okayama Castle Moat | 2019-09-26 | |||||
Artistic Publication | Lulu Press, Inc | 2022-11-01 | |||||
Exhibit | BioBAT Art Space | 06/08/2024 | |||||
Exhibit | Storefront for Art and Architecture | 97 Kenmare Street, New York, NY | 09/19/2018 | |||||
Critical Acclaim | University of Chicago Press | 01/11/2024 | |||||
Publication | Cambridge University Press (Research Directions: Biotechnology Design , Volume 1 , 2023 , e5DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/btd.2022.5) | 2022-09-27 | |||||
Book Chapter | Routledge | 2021-08-01 | |||||
Talk | Fabrica, Italy | 2023-11-16 | |||||
Invited Article | Nature Microbiology | 2023-03-30 |
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Publication | Research Directions: Biotechnology Design, 2024, 1–38 | 04/21/2024 |
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Publication | Environmental Microbiome | 2023-03-30 |
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ExhibitLLI | Prime Produce | 2023-03-10 | |||||
Exhibit | Open Source Gallery | 06/29/2023 |
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Conference Paper | Air infiltration and Ventilation Centre Conference | 2022-05-04 | |||||
Publication | Energy and Buildings 260, 111913 (2022) | 2022-04-01 |
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Invited Article | Journal of Design and Science, MIT Press | 2017-07-12 | |||||
TeachingExhibit | NYU IDM x New Lab | 2023-12-15 | |||||
Invited Article | BioDesigned Journal | 2020-07-01 | |||||
Invited Article | Nature Biotechnology | 2021-01-01 | |||||
Conference Presentation | Civic Art Lab, NYC | 2023-10-28 | Elizabeth Hénaff Heather Parrish, Leonard Roussel, Seth Wenger |
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Press | New York | 2022-04-08 |
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Exhibit | Science Gallery Detroit | 2019-06-01 | |||||
AwardExhibitLLI | NYU Tandon School of Engineering | 04/26/2024 |
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Talk | CCCB Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona | 2021-11-22 |
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Exhibit | Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy | 05/01/2016 |
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PressInterview | NYU Humanities H-LAB | 2023-09 | |||||
Exhibit | School for Poetic Computation | 11/01/2018 |
