Scholar Snapshot featuring Sambodh Sinha

"My introduction to computational biology has made me fall even more in love with biology," shares Sambodh Sinha , recipient of a 2024 National Merit Vanderbilt University Scholarship. "Working in the intersection of biology, the study of living organisms, and computer science, a totally man-made field, is incredible. Here you have a field as old as life has been here on Earth, and another which only began a hundred years ago. What's more incredible is that with computer science, we can make biological discoveries [that would be] simply impossible without the computational power computers provide."

"My parents left their homes in India and went to England in pursuit of a better medical education," Sambodh says. During his sophomore year of high school, Sambodh's family moved from England to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "To me, the [National Merit] award is a reflection of the work my mum and dad have put in to provide my sister and me with the best lives and education. I think awarding academic accomplishment is beautiful, in the sense that it rewards education, which is what has driven and drives us forwards as a collective humanity. I wouldn't be typing this if it weren't for educated people who then sought to make our world more productive and efficient. But education is a lot more than just computers. It's developing an understanding for the numerous different viewpoints, perspectives, cultures, backgrounds, upbringings, and lives the eight billion of us experience. . . . Seeking to understand these improves us."