Sloka Iyengar

“Being a scientist allows us to be a part of a secret world that very few people are privy to. I was very interested in the concept of reality – of how we know what’s real, whether animals have a reality and whether animal reality is same as ours. Being a scientist to me means having the tools to uncover and understand a small part of that.”

“I grew up in a city in India called Ahmedabad, which is in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
I find NYC the same as Ahmedabad: a big city that is loud and dirty and heavily populated. NYC is lots of little communities, and it’s easy to become part of any one of them.”

“I wanted to be a lot of things at various points – a writer, journalist, professional dancer. I do a form of Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam. This dance form originated in the temples of South India perhaps as early as 200 BC. No one knows for sure, but it’s cool to be part of this dance form in NYC.”

During her graduate and postdoctoral work, Sloka used electrophysiology to study epileptic circuits. She then worked at an epilepsy clinic, where she conducted clinical trials for children and adults with epilepsy. Presently, she is developing a STEM curriculum for an organization in Harlem, NY, and working as a healthcare consultant at Boston Strategic Partners. She is a professional dancer, and loves to swim and embroider.

“I teach neuroscience to middle schoolers in Harlem. For the final project, they decided to surprise me by making a video based on the show “My Strange Addiction”; of course, their strange addiction was brains!”