STUDENT PROFILES
Natalie Arkus
Area
Applied MathematicsFocus
Natalie investigates the mathematics of aging: the key molecular events that cause organisms, from yeast to human beings, to grow old and die.Education
Columbia University, B.A. in Physics and Mathematical Biology; M.S. in Applied MathematicsThere are many things that drew me to Harvard and to the School in particular. I only looked at programs that reported an openness and a drive toward interdisciplinary research.
It's funny because there were many other institutions that claimed to do interdisciplinary research, but, once you visited them or looked at the research they were producing, you could see they really weren't.
Quite honestly, when I visited, I was bombarded with people who were doing interesting work in mathematical biology and biophysics. Harvard is really vibrant and exciting; one of the reasons I decided to come here (and it seems also to be a reason that many of my other friends in the program decided to come here) is the atmosphere that you're in---you're around people who will push you, who have a robust background, and whose opinions you would like to hear.
The great thing about HSEAS is that it's so flexible. As long as you can convince someone that something is worth doing, you can do it!