Divya Gandla

Divya primarily discovered her interest in the field of engineering through her extended independent research project on further enhancing solar cell technology. Over junior year, she developed prototypes of optically enhanced, multilayered dye sensitized solar cells. With her sustainable engineering project, Divya won 3rd place at the Clean Tech International Competition and a Bronze Medal at the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, Environment Project (I-SWEEEP) Olympiad. Divya was also awarded 1st place from the Innovate to Mitigate National Competition for her bold research and design plan for further transforming this alternative energy technology.

Additionally, Divya interned at the Laboratory of Genitourinary Cancer Pathogenesis at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) the summer prior to and during the entirety of her senior year of high school. Divya analyzed next-generation sequencing data by developing and implementing bioinformatics pipelines to investigate the genetic relationships between multiple subtypes of prostate cancer. During her junior year, Divya was a member of the development team of the Digital Repository of Mathematical Formulae (DRMF) web tool project in the Computational Mathematics division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She is excited for the opportunity to work alongside fellow Columbia students and faculty on other research projects.

Aside from academics, Divya enjoys playing tennis, volunteering at her local hospital, and trying out different cuisines. In her free time, she also enjoys exploring Washington, D.C with her friends and coming up with puns.