Founder of Piper, which creates electrical engineering kits for students
All in for science: “I have loved science since I was young. At 17, I won the first-ever Google Global Science Fair, triumphing over 10,000 competitors and presenting my work on ovarian cancer to President Obama, NIH directors, and students around the world. This initial success set me on a path through Harvard for undergrad to joining the Medical Scientist Training Program at Duke University, where I completed my Ph.D. studying metabolic changes in ovarian cancer metastasis.”
At Duke: “Duke gave me an incredible community, but, even more than that, it taught me how to adapt and stay resilient when things didn’t go the way I expected. I still remember sitting in Dr. Chris Kontos’ office in tears at the beginning of my Ph.D., overwhelmed by how different reality felt from the plan I’d mapped out, and how he reminded me to keep looking forward even when the path felt uncertain. Fast-forward four years, and that same mentor – now my thesis advisor – was the one hugging me after I defended my dissertation. I came to Duke expecting strong training and lifelong friends, and I found all of that. What I didn’t expect were the unexpected twists and turns of an academic career, and that Duke would be the place where I learned how to find the mentors who walk with you through every one of them. They shaped not just my career, but the kind of physician-scientist – and the kind of person – I aspire to be.”