After earning a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Fergusson College, in India, Divya Bharat Parikh changed course. Encouraged by her grandfather, a mathematician, to use research to change her world, she set her sights on translational science—and a master’s degree in biotechnology. Northeastern was the logical choice, she says, because “Boston is the heartland” for biotech. 

Parikh calls her six-month co-op at pharmaceutical giant GSK transformative. “Co-op gives you a taste of what it is to be part of a world-changing universe of drug discovery and therapy,” she says. It showed her, first-hand, how basic science is translated into medicine, something reams of books and papers couldn’t do. 

After graduating in 2019, Divya landed a position as a scientist at Merck. She’s now helping to develop new cancer therapeutics. 

“Northeastern gave me wings to fly and do cool science,” she says. “For that, I’ll always be grateful.”