Spotlights

Yuji Takubo
PhD candidate
When you’re in a PhD program and you know you’ll be spending years working toward an academic or …
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Hannah Nabavi
MS ’26
Aeronautics and Astronautics
When I first came to Stanford, I was inspired because I saw that the courses aren’t just …
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Noah Eckman
PhD candidate
Chemical Engineering
I’m excited to go into work every day because someone might be working on something I don’t …
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Samuel King
PhD candidate
Bioengineering
I grew up in a very rural part of Canada and loved the outdoors, so I initially wanted to become a …
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Marigold Malinao
PhD candidate
Materials Science and Engineering
I’ve always been inclined toward math and science, but it’s still a bit of a mystery how I chose …
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Varun Madan
Undergraduate
Computer Science
In some ways you could say honeybees are the reason I’m at Stanford today …
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Dan Somen
Technical Director, Product Realization Lab
Mechanical Engineering
I didn’t have an “aha moment” when it came to becoming an engineer …
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Sonia Martin
PhD candidate
Mechanical Engineering
When I first began making decisions about college and my career, I didn’t even know what …
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Christine Baker
Assistant Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering
I grew up in Renton, Washington, near Puget Sound, which is a beautiful part of the Pacific …
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Thomas Colburn
PhD candidate
Materials Science and Engineering
I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. We were …
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Kayla Patterson
MS ’24
Computer Science
I was born and raised in Robbinsville, a small town in central New Jersey …
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Adrienne Propp
PhD candidate
Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering
I never planned to become a mathematician. I liked math growing up because it made sense to me – …
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Lara Weed
PhD candidate
Bioengineering
I was always interested in how the world worked, and looking back now, I can see my interest in …
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Sebastian Fernández
PhD candidate
Electrical Engineering
I was born in Cusco, Peru, located at an altitude of 11,000 feet in the Andes, where we lived with …
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Alicia Sheares
Assistant Professor
Management Science and Engineering
I grew up about 45 minutes outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County, where we were a Black family in …
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Tinevimbo Ndlovu
MS ’24
Aeronautics and Astronautics
I’ve always thought planes were cool. I went on my first flight when I was 6, from my hometown of …
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Gregory Zaborski
PhD candidate
Materials Science and Engineering
I was raised by my Sicilian mother in the small town of Saugerties in upstate New York …
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Sanmi Koyejo
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
I’m interested in thinking about artificial intelligence in a rigorous way …
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Iro Armeni
Assistant Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering
As a kid I would go to construction sites with my dad, a civil engineer, and he’d show me plans …
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Edward Apraku
PhD candidate
Civil & Environmental Engineering
I was born in Kumasi, Ghana, and moved to the U.S. with my parents and older sister when I was 2 …
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Emma Kaeli
PhD candidate
Materials Science and Engineering
When I first started college, someone asked if I wanted to join the Society of Women Engineers, but …
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Owen Modeste
Senior Creative Producer, Stanford Center for Professional Development
I’m originally from Trinidad and Tobago, and that’s where I first became interested in media …
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