"I wanted to be a priest. They said, 'Girls don't do that.' I wanted to be captain of the national cricket team. They said, 'Girls don't do that.' I wanted to be a scientist. They said, 'Girls don't do that,' and I said, ‘I AM SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR NEGATIVITY.’”

Friends, meet Dr. Ritu Raman: engineer, innovator, AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador, force of nature! In this enlightening, joyful, and inspiring episode, Ritu shares with Jocelyn and Bradley how her experiences growing up a child of engineers in India, Kenya, and the U.S. shaped her desire to use science to solve problems. She tells us about her first research experience chaperoning rat frat parties, which led her to think about how living tissue could be used to develop a new kind of robot that can adapt and change in response to its environment. From her research on bio-bots to translational medicine, Ritu is pioneering a new approach to “building with biology.”

You can find Ritu on Twitter @DrRituRaman, and you can learn more about her amazing work at the links below:

https://rituraman.com/publicity/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubu-kMnODNI&list=PLl7sKEovQyENcvIW6Wkd3YhAUYjaLcKhN
https://events.technologyreview.com/video/watch/ritu-raman-inventors-tr35-2019/

The IF/THEN initiative:
https://www.ifthenshecan.org/
https://twitter.com/IfThenSheCan

Parry Gripp’s “Neon Pegasus”: https://youtu.be/EiO9_PJ0h8Q

Contact Science! With Friends (especially if you’re a scientist interested in a lively conversation about your science and science story) at Gmail or Twitter!
• Gmail: [email protected]
• Twitter @SciWithFriends
• Facebook: Science With Friends

Science! With Friends Podcast is created and hosted by Jocelyn Bosley (@SciTalker) and Bradley Nordell (@bradleynordell) , Produced and edited by Vince Ruhl.