| Ariel Hanson is currently a graduate student of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. She earned her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at Northeastern University and is now currently in her second year of graduate school, working towards her PhD in biomedical engineering. Ariel admits that with every career path she takes, she is getting more like her parents. With parents in both the engineering and medical fields, she seems to have followed in their footsteps. "The exposure to their [my parent's] professions definitely influenced my career choices. I was always interested in the stories they would tell at dinner about cases they had seen that day. With parents who are passionate about their work, how could you not get caught up in that excitement?" Ariel also, unfortunately, experienced a lot of family illness, eventually loosing her sister to cancer. It was this event that made her realize that using her skills in the medical field might be more self-satisfying. "Engineering was interesting to me because I was able to look at everything like it was a big puzzle. Now I can use that same approach to solve puzzles that may cure an illness some day."
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| Ariel is currently working under the direction of Dr. Loboa in the Cell Mechanics Lab. Her area of research involves studying the properties of mesenchymal stem cells and their differentiation potential down an osteogenic pathway in response to mechanical stimulation. She chose this research area because it seemed to be a perfect integration of her mechanical engineering skills and her newly found interest in biology. Ariel eventually sees herself working in the biomedical industry and possibly moving back up to Boston. She seems to be suffering from withdraw by not being around snow and the Boston Redsox. |
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