When Sathya Kummarapurugu was in eighth grade, he had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up, until his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It was his father who first suggested he become a doctor, to help people like her. Kummarapurugu agreed, but it didn’t take him long to realize that being a doctor wasn’t enough.
“Doctors treat the symptoms they see,” Kummarapurugu, a junior biomedical engineering major, said. “I want to create treatments that can actually cure disease, or at least mitigate it. That’s where I can make the most impact.”
Kummarapurugu is one step closer to making that a reality as the winner of one of undergraduate research’s most prestigious honors, the Goldwater Scholarship, awarded annually to students who show exceptional promise in science, mathematics, and engineering.
Out of 1,485 faculty-nominated students from 482 institutions, Kummarapurugu was among just 454 selected for the scholarship, which provides up to $7,500 to support academic expenses, a strong credential for graduate school applications, and access to a network of scholars and alumni.
It’s an honor that is well-deserved. At TCNJ, Kummarapurugu conducts computational research focused on deep brain stimulation, a clinical technique in which electrodes are implanted in the brain to deliver electrical pulses to treat conditions like Parkinson’s disease. Knowing exactly how much tissue is activated matters, he says. Without a reliable model, physicians are essentially placing electrodes blindly. His work refines existing models by incorporating a form of electrical resistance that affects how much brain tissue is actually activated, giving doctors a better roadmap of where they’re going before they ever enter the operating room.
He’s quick to credit the TCNJ faculty members who helped forge his path. Xuefeng Wei, associate professor of biomedical engineering, gave him his first research opportunity as a freshman (a MATLAB application simulating how neurons fire, designed as an educational tool for high school students) and continues to advise the deep brain stimulation lab where Kummarapurugu works today.
“Most professors don’t take freshmen on,” he said. “That trust made me want to keep going.”
Wei wasn’t the only one in his corner. Anthony Lau, professor of biomedical engineering, is both a mentor and a friend who Kummarapurugu said offered encouragement through tougher stretches. “He wasn’t just a great professor,”he said. “He was there when I doubted myself. He still is.” He also expressed gratitude to Brett BuSha, professor of biomedical engineering and a member of the campus Goldwater committee, who reviewed his application materials and advocated for him during the internal selection process.
Kummarapurugu will spend the summer as a research intern at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, working on an intracranial pressure device. He plans to pursue an MD/PhD program with an eye on combining clinical practice and research to develop new treatments for neurological diseases.
“I want to be the doctor they bring to the table when there’s new, groundbreaking research,” he said. “I want to be able to say, ‘Here’s how we apply this. Here’s what this means for patients.”