In this episode, I converse with Siranush Babakhanova, an artist, scientist, and engineer, creating physical and digital immersive paradigms that allow us to transcend the limitations of perception and comprehension. Siranush studied Physics and Computer Science at MIT; researched terraformation at NASA; and devised ways to read/non-invasively interact with microstructures in a brain at the Synthetic Neurobiology lab. In parallel, she also conglomerated the largest teams for fashion design and photography for MIT’s Infinite magazine and initiated award-winning (National Geographics, CAMIT) art-meets-science collaborations. Siranush is also an expert calligrapher, pianist, dancer, graphic designer, multimedia painter, and a polyglot versed in 7 languages. In the fall of 2020, Siranush joined the Stanford Biophysics PhD program as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

Siranush is interested in innovative (cyber/bio) fashion design and implementation of novel materials and interfaces, creating new storytelling techniques (linguistic and semiotic) and mediums (oceanological), and making tools and experiences (choreographies, immersive environments) that help imagine the future of human experience. We indulge in a truly riveting conversation on her phenomenal journey through science and life; thoroughly inspirational mother; science as a gateway to the wider world in post-Soviet Armenia; winning a record six International Olympiad medals; eclectic research interests, right from working on exoatmosphere-wide simulations at NASA to designing tools for deep brain imaging and in situ proteomics; founding the Xapiens human augmentation initiative at MIT; heading to Stanford for grad school during pandemic times; chasing one's innate curiosity and thriving at the interface of interdisciplinarities'; and many more things!!