Sree Kandhadai ’27 Wins Goldwater Scholarship for Excellence in STEM

Looking ahead to her career, Kandhadai says she "wants to do a little bit of everything." She is fascinated by environmental chemistry and green chemistry, but also loves organic chemistry.

These subjects are relatively new to her: she spent most of her childhood dreaming of becoming a wildlife ecologist or ornithologist. But when she arrived at Bowdoin, she fell under the sway of organic chemistry, much to her surprise after not liking the subject in high school. In her first semester of college, she said, "I told myself I am getting this thing over with as soon as I get here. I bought the textbook for one semester only."

But the beauty of the field transfixed her. "It's unlike anything else you'll ever learn, ever. It's not quite like learning a new language or studying logic," although there is some overlap.

Instead she likens it more to ecology, and even theater. "It's got that element of predicting the behavior of species. I used to love learning about adaptations in ecology, and in organic chemistry, you study how functional groups allow species to react in certain ways."

The molecules she spends hours each day thinking about also seem to her like actors in a play. "In theater, I was told that when I'm analyzing a character, I need to know what they want, what is in their way, and what they do to get what they want, and that's orgo. You look at a molecule, you wonder what it wants, whether there's something in the way, and what it's going to do to get what it wants. The molecules are just little guys that want stability."

Kandhadai, who grew up in San Diego, said she is certain about pursuing a PhD in environmental or organic chemistry to help the health of the planet. She knows that sounds like a broad and undefined goal right now, but her outlook is expansive.

"I am hoping that in my research career, I can run an interdisciplinary lab that works toward solving environmental problems. I hope I can build the skills to do something interdisciplinary," she said. In her three years at Bowdoin, she's already had an impressive grounding in interdisciplinary research.

Her first experience was in biology professor Barry Logan's plant ecophysiology lab, looking at the use of melatonin to improve the drought tolerance of turfgrass. Her second experience, with analytical chemistry professor Beth Stemmler, involved experimenting with light and catalysts to break down pollutants-like pharmaceuticals or personal care products-in wastewater. Last summer, with a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates fellowship, she worked alongside graduate students in a polymer chemistry lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Next year, Kandhadai plans to return to Stemmler's lab to continue investigating the photocatalysis of organic pollutants in wastewater.

Devoting herself to organic or environmental chemistry-or for that matter, green chemistry-could pull Kandhadai in many different directions. For instance, she might focus on atmospheric research-studying air pollution, indoor pollution, or how volatile organic compounds interact with the ozone layer. Or she could tackle bioremediation, addressing, for example, the destruction wrought by mining. Or she could study plants. "Plants are secreting chemicals into their environment to change their surroundings. I could study plant chemistry!" she said.

She also could work on developing synthetic strategies for renewable fuels, or harness the power of enzymes to run environmentally beneficial reactions, or work on plastic recycling. After all, "these are all chemical problems," she pointed out.

Kandhadai is open to inspiration and to change. "I will be discovering things about myself as I go through life. It happened here," she said.

What she is certain about is that wherever she winds up and whatever she ends up doing, she'll work hard to succeed, as an expression of gratitude to her parents, mentors, and educators, she said. "I am driven to make the most of the opportunities I have been given."