Shriya Siddhartha is in her comfort zone in the Lippert Lab at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
'Now the fun begins," Siddhartha said, pouring a clear liquid into a beaker behind protective glass. "Getting my own project has been 100% because of SMU's status as a rather small school."
Siddhartha is researching reactive oxygen species, a molecule that reacts with other molecules in a cell that can cause damage and lead to age-related illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, and Alzheimer's.
"So my research mainly focuses on looking at new ways that we can see different molecules that there may have been previously no way to see in cells."
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Siddhartha's love of chemistry might be biology.
"So I do come from a family of science-heavy people," Siddhartha said. Both her grandparents on her father's side were scientists in India. Her grandmother was accepted to medical schools in India as a younger woman. "Unfortunately, she was not allowed to go to any of these colleges by her family members who considered it less marriageable."
Siddhartha credits her grandmother, " who gave me kind of this love for medicine and desire to follow in her footsteps and pursue a career in medicine," Siddhartha said, " just like she never could."
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Siddhartha is on her way to making her dream a reality. She was recently awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, given to just over 400 students nationwide. In addition, she was one of six students at the Goldwater Foundation named UWorld Scholars, which promotes future leaders in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.
"STEM is one of the most important fields to have a diverse range of voices represented," Siddhartha said. "So we need People of Color, Women of Color, everyone needs a voice in STEM."
The average person may not understand Siddhartha's research, but they might benefit from it one day. If only her grandmother could see her now.
"I would like to think that she'd be proud," Siddhartha said.
Siddhartha hopes to be an ophthalmologist one day, doing research on optic nerve diseases.
