For Cherish Taylor, having the opportunity to spend her 11th and 12th grade summers at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology exploring engineering and science opened new horizons and provided a foundation for her future research.
The MIT program, Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES), “exposed me to the possibility of a career in academic research,” Taylor tells Diverse. “Prior to my time at MITES, having a career in science meant serving as a medical professional or forensic analyst. I had no idea universities housed large research facilities that allowed scientists to answer questions about basic science (and) human disease.”
Ten years since her high school internships, Taylor is now a fifth-year Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Harvard University, where she gained a strong background in behavioral neuroscience. She also had post-undergraduate research experience at the Geneva Foundation studying mild traumatic brain injury in active-duty military soldiers.
“Working at the Geneva Foundation provided me with a deeper understanding of the challenges and strengths of conducting human research,” says Taylor, explaining that her undergraduate research used mouse models. “My time at the Geneva Foundation also made me realize that although I am passionate about finding new ways to alleviate the burden of neurological/neuropsychiatric disease, the research questions that most interest me involve translational, rather than clinical, neuroscience.”
“Given her strong academic and research background, Cherish was highly recruited to our very selective neuroscience Ph.D. program, and we were delighted when she accepted our offer,” says Dr. Somshuvra Mukhopadhyay.
Mukhopadhyay, an associate professor in the Institute for Cellular & Molecular Biology and the Institute for Neuroscience, commended the “clarity of vision” Taylor possessed about her research goals.
“Her long-term goal was to work as an independent scientist in a R1 research university working toward developing treatments for psychiatric disorders,” Mukhopadhyay recalls. “Training in my lab would give her the skills necessary to address mechanisms of neurological disorders, and this training, combined with her prior background in neurobehavioral research, would ideally poise her for future success.”
