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She also continues quite a trend for Carnegie Mellon. Savitskaya is following in the alumnae footsteps of these recent Churchill Scholarship recipients.

• 2011-12, Rebecca Krall (S’11), who majored in physics at Carnegie Mellon
• 2010-11, Swati Varshney (CMU’10), who majored in chemistry and minored in biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon
• 2008-09, Courtney Ondeck (E’08), who had a dual major in materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon

Like the three recent winners, Savitskaya worked closely with Stephanie Wallach and Jennifer Keating-Miller at CMU’s Fellowships and Scholarships Office on the extensive Churchill Scholarship application process, and she credits them with much of her success. “Because of their support, I feel like I’ve matured so much as a human being. There’s not a chance I could have done this without them,” she says.

Nathan Urban, head of the Department of Biological Sciences, thinks she is being overly modest. “Judy is a truly exceptional student who exemplifies much of what makes Carnegie Mellon students special. She is a deep and interdisciplinary thinker working at the interface between fields and has demonstrated remarkable intellectual maturity and ability.”

He’s also delighted that she received the Churchill Scholarship. “Going to Cambridge will give her the opportunity to work in the incredibly exciting new field of synthetic biology. I am very excited to hear about the work that she will do and the experiences she will have.”

Urban isn’t the only one excited. Savitskaya says the idea of going to Cambridge, where she will work in the lab of “world-class scientist” Jim Haseloff, thrills her. She knows her skills will be stretched for sure—perhaps in the same way that taking computer science classes at CMU stretched her intellectual limits. Everything had always come so easy to Savitskaya in high school, until that first CS class at CMU. But she persevered and ended up with an A in the class. “But Haseloff, that may be another story,” Savitskaya says. “He is a rock star in the field of synthetic biology.”

It’s true that Haseloff is considered a pioneer in the field in which scientists design and construct new biological parts and systems. Prior to joining the Department of Plant Sciences at Cambridge, he served as group leader at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He leads the research team that Savitskaya will join this fall as she pursues her master of philosophy degree in plant sciences in the School of the Biological Sciences at Cambridge.

She will have come a long way from those Saturdays in her high school lab. But she says she won’t forget one of the lessons she learned there. Pergolizzi, her teacher, would tell her: what makes a world-class scientist is passion for understanding how things work and patience. Savitskaya believes she has both.

She says she won’t forget her days at Carnegie Mellon either, both the academic work and her good friends, in particular Sochol and Nacey. That sunset picnic in Ireland is a memory that will last a lifetime:

With the sun nearly fallen from the sky, the three friends take one last look at the majestic water. It seems so peaceful—the surface like glass. They pose together and snap a few final pictures. With the wine and hummus gone, Savitskaya, Sochol, and Nacey begin to walk along the path back to town. Their futures lie just ahead.

Emmett Zitelli (HNZ’01) of Pittsburgh is a former NFL football player. He is a writer for various publications and is a regular contributor to this magazine.

Photo credit: Howth, Ireland (page one), at dusk and (page 3) as seen by Jessica Sochol's camera. Additional photography by Judy Savitskaya

Related Links:
Biology Student Receives Churchill Scholarship To Study in England

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