7. Netra Unni Rajesh - Finding Cancer Therapies while Thinking Artfully

At 15, when she won a youth science competition Netra said “It's my life-long goal to be a cancer researcher.” Our conversation helped uncover a bit of what led to this self-empowerment in her career and life. We began with her experience conducting genomics research in high school, leading her to the Engineering Science program at U of T, leading the enormous growth of the Club for Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering (CUBE) and conducting research across borders. Knowing her enabling goal was always to be on the pathway of earning a PhD, we also realize the importance of asking insightful questions (and how this is often half the job) in graduate school, and how differences in agency have changed her perspective of graduate school versus undergrad. Newly introduced in this episode is a lightning ground of questions where we explore Netra’s alternate profession, her biggest mistake, what drives her, and the small pleasures in life she appreciates.