About Me

I was born in New Delhi, India in 1985 and immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts when I was four years old. Despite traveling almost everywhere for work, I've lived in the same five square miles of Cambridge, downtown Boston, and Brookline for 36 years.

A Transplanted Kid

My parents were from Calcutta. I grew up speaking Bengali at home. My parents refused to speak English at home, despite being fluent and lecturing in English, because they wanted me to keep my cultural roots. I spent whole summers in Calcutta as a kid. I was part of the Bengali and greater Indian community around Boston, keeping that identity alongside being a thoroughly American kid.

The truth is, many people today tell me they don't see my Indian cultural side as an adult. I'm Indian internally, not so much externally. Like many immigrant kids, there was always this drive to fit in, to not stand out, to be treated like everyone else. I lost my Indian accent by third grade. I couldn't say "fish" properly because the "sh" sound was hard. It came out as "fiss." That need to blend in shaped me in ways I'm still figuring out.

Some days I think of myself as completely American. Other days I remember the entire other culture I loved growing up. Since college, since being on my own, the American side has really led the way.

Family

Science was everywhere in my household. My father did his postdoc with V.A. Najjar, was part of the Edgar Haber group at MGH, and co-founded India's National Institute of Immunology. After I was born, he held research faculty positions at Harvard and Princeton. My mother worked in science and medicine libraries at Tufts Medical School, the Whitehead Institute, Harvard Medical School, and Boston University's Science and Engineering Library. My older brother went into academic and biotech science before moving to the logistics and operational side of the industry.

This is the environment I grew up in. Science wasn't special. It was normal.

Growing Up

Looking back, growing up was about figuring out three things about myself: I loved science and engineering, I loved leading, and I loved having impact. Also, I was intensely competitive, something I've had to work out of myself over the years. I don't need to win anymore. What I need is to be part of a high-performance team I respect, contribute to, and can lead.

The evidence was everywhere. I built my elementary school's first website. I was on our school's "tech team," figuring out how to integrate computers into the curriculum. By twelve, I was on the national board of Earth Force, an environmental organization for youth. From 12 to 16, I traveled to DC regularly to help run the organization and lobby Congress. I spoke directly to congressional representatives as a kid about why youth voices mattered in environmental policy. Our campaign "Get Out Spoke'n" pushed for pedestrian infrastructure funding. I helped lobby for TEA-21, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which approved billions in federal transportation funding with provisions for alternative transportation infrastructure.

High school continued the pattern. Captain of the science team. State gold medals in water ecology and engineering at Science Olympiad. Competed in the National Ocean Science Bowl, then came back as a moderator years later. MIT FIRST Robotics team member. As a junior and senior, I put together a team with my high school friends to enter collegiate underwater robotics competitions run by NASA and NOAA. First year we came in second at the international competition. The next year we won first, and because of it, the city of Cambridge put my team up on a billboard next to Novartis for a year. Wildly embarrassing.

I have no idea how my parents were able to support me through all of this madness, but they did and made sure to always nurture my creativity and interests. I can't express how lucky I was.

Music started early. Violin from age 6 to 18, third chair in youth orchestra. Taught myself piano in high school.

Sports were part of life too. Soccer and baseball when I was younger. Swimming and tae kwon do in middle school, then tennis through high school. Still play ultimate frisbee.

I thought I was heading into marine biology or marine engineering. But after sophomore year, I started working as a paid scientist at the Whitehead Institute. That's where my career really began, and that story is on my career page.

As an Adult

From college through my time at Advanced Peptides, I got deeply into partner dance. Four years of competitive ballroom, five years of Argentine tango, three years of salsa, plus some swing and blues. Weekly lessons, constant practice. I approached it like I approached everything else.

Cooking became a passion in college and has continued through life. I love working through complex, technical recipes. I'm also a taco aficionado, having sampled and rated hundreds of taco shops across the US. My friends know not to ask me about tacos unless they have time for the full analysis.

My friends and I are obsessed with puzzle rooms. We travel to try them around the world. We also competed for years in the Great Urban Race, a combination adult puzzle hunt and marathon. I was not much of a runner, so I led the HQ problem solving and navigation team. We won the Boston regionals and came in second place every time at the international competition. We finally figured out why. While we could answer all the questions and solve the puzzles as fast if not faster than everyone else, the first place team happened to be competitive marathon runners. They were both 20 years older than us and always the same winners every year. We literally could not out run them!

Now

I'm still working through what it means to be an immigrant who assimilated so thoroughly.

When I'm not working on my next venture, I'm still in the kitchen working through complex recipes, doing escape rooms and puzzles, or trying to figure out golf. Still living in that same Cambridge radius that's always been home.