Christopher Alabi is a science-loving, soccer-watching, ping-pong-playing professor who calls Cornell home—both professionally and personally. Born in Nigeria, schooled in England, and educated across NYU, Caltech, and MIT, Chris eventually landed in Ithaca in 2013, where he’s been teaching, mentoring, and researching ever since.

At Cornell’s Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, he leads a lab that explores how designer macromolecules can be used to deliver powerful biologics into cells—to rewire the genome, modulate the proteome, and (hopefully) treat a bunch of diseases along the way.

Along the journey—from college in New York to grad school in California, a postdoc in Boston and tenure at Cornell —he’s picked up a few research awards and teaching honors, but he likes to keep things simple: “never too high, never too low.”

When he’s not in the lab, you’ll find him on the soccer field (or cheering from the sidelines), whether it's rooting for Manchester United or watching his two sons play. He’s always up for a casual ping-pong match, a thoughtful conversation about science and discovery, or just getting to know the neighbors.