Hyejo Shin

Biography

Hyejo Shin is a PhD candidate at Central Saint Martins. Her research interest lies in the fields of biodesign, speculative futures, and ecology. Her practice-based research 'Breathing Minerals' explores the potential of biomineralisation, specifically microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) with cyanobacteria, to develop carbon capture biomaterials for circular product design.

While MICP is extensively researched in engineering, photosynthetic MICP using cyanobacteria for CO2 sequestration is largely unexplored. Existing research focuses on larger-scale engineering applications, with limited explorations for smaller-scale uses relevant to product design. This research seeks to optimise MICP to develop carbon capture materials for future circular product design with cyanobacterial strains, utilising waste aggregates to align with circular economy principles.