Major: biomedical engineering
Hometown: Wayland, MA

Why did you choose Cornell Engineering?
I chose Cornell because of the opportunities that are available to undergraduate students. I knew I wanted to study engineering in college. Cornell offered strong majors in every field of engineering and has a diverse array of research, organizations, and clubs available for students to pursue. I also loved that Cornell has so many different colleges with so many classes outside of engineering to choose from.

What advice might you give other students considering BME?
I think the first thing I would say is to get involved! There are so many labs, clubs and project teams on campus. Find a bunch of professors who do research on something that interests you, seek them out, and talk to them—they’re happy to share what they know and might offer you a change to work with them. For those considering BME I would say that at its foundation, biomedical engineering is about helping others. If that is what you like, then this is a perfect major for finding creative solutions to difficult health problems.

What do you do outside of the classroom?
Throughout college I’ve been fortunate to be a part of an engineering project team and to participate in undergraduate research. For three years I was part of Cornell’s Baja Racing project team as a business team member. Later on, as I shifted my focus to research, I have also been a part of the work going on in two labs (Dr. Wang and Dr. Putnam) where I have researched biomaterials and novel drug delivery systems. Outside of Cornell, I have had two summer internships, one in research and development at Moderna and the other in process development at Biogen.

What’s the next step for you?
Although I am graduating in May, I am enrolled in the Master of Engineering early-admit program at Cornell, which is designed to allow seniors in engineering to begin graduate studies early and graduate with a Masters Degree with only one additional semester of school. I chose to do an M. Eng in BME in order to continue research and sharpen my lab techniques. Afterwards I plan on working in Pharmaceutical R&D or process development in the Boston area.