Three-time GFFer, Ananth Panchamukhi just completed his first year of undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago (UChicago), where he is planning (at least for now) to major in biochemistry. He tells us that he’s enjoying college and his studies even more than he anticipated, and that he has been accepted into the Clinical Excellence Scholars Program, where he will learn about working in medicine.
Ananth’s summer of 2018 will be spent conducting research in the lab of Professor Suzanne Conzen in UChicago Medicine’s Department of Hematology/Oncology. He will be looking at proteins that ovarian cancer cells use to communicate and respond to the environment around them. This project is sponsored by the Provost’s Scholarship, which Ananth has received.
During his freshman year, Ananth wrote articles for Scientia and The Triple Helix, two student-run publications. And, through Phoenix Biology, a science club that he’s involved in, he helped organize many different events on campus, including:
- a career panel on opportunities at the intersection of biology and computer science;
- a week-long series of events, called Sciencepalooza, which including talks and panels, as well as a science fair; and
- “Fireside Chats” with professors in order to give students the chance to interact with lecturers and faculty in an informal setting.