Did you come from a family of scientists or doctors?

My parents are software engineers and my brother is a resident in neurosurgery. My parents came from Ukraine. They met there, but both my brother and I were born here and I grew up in New Jersey.

Did you study science all through school? Were there many girls in those classes?

I liked science all along, but really began studying it in high school. I was in honors and A.P. classes, and especially in honors science classes, I was one of the few girls — in chemistry class we had about four girls and all the girls were at the same table

What really gave you a push in science?

In my sophomore year, I was awarded a full-time summer research position in a professional research lab through Partners in Science .

How did you get that award and what impact did it have?

I did a science project that year — a very basic project on Alzheimer’s and Type 2 diabetes — and that was one of the awards.

I worked at one of the labs at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers — it took me an hour and a half each way to get there. I had two great mentors, including Dr. Andrew Gow , who ran the lab. That was definitely a turning point for me. I started working in Dr. Gow’s lab sophomore summer, and after that, I loved it so much that during the year and the following summer I came back.