I was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1990. I moved to Indiana, USA in 2002 for 2 years, while my parents completed their graduate studies in Ball State University.Afterwards, we moved back to Armenia and I attended school #62, from which I have graduated.Moreover, I have also graduated from a music school of A. Aslamazyan, where I have studied violin and piano.Following graduation, I continued to play violin in an orchestra for one year.

My desire to study at the University of Toronto arose during my very first visit to Canada, when I was able to witness convocation on St. George Campus.The gothic architecture of the campus and the history of discoveries associated with the university fascinated me.I was only a freshman in high school, so the dream of getting admitted to the best higher educational institution in Canada seemed very distant.However, upon my return to my motherland, Armenia, along with attending school, I had the privilege of being tutored by two professors of Yerevan State University, for the subjects of biology and physics.It was this tutoring which not only led me to discover the subjects I wanted to study in the university but also gave me the skills which undoubtedly proved crucial in the next levels of my education.

In 2007, four years after my first visit to the University of Toronto, I got a letter of admission.Not only did UofT become my university, but it has also been the biggest part of my life for the last 3 years.Since my second year, I was chosen to conduct my own research project, under the supervision of Dr. Helen Rodd, a professor at the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at UofT.The project was a success, and I attended the Biology Conference at University of Windsor, Ontario, to talk to other scientists about the results.By the completion of the research, I was offered a position at the same lab.

During my third year, while still working with Dr. Rodd, I was able to collaborate with two of my physiology professors, as part of my biophysical physiology course, and write two review papers presenting physiology from the perspective of biophysics.The professors were highly pleased with my work and suggested submitting my papers to the "Journal of Undergraduate Life Sciences" at UofT, in order to get them published.The publication is currently a work in progress. By the end of my third year, as I became more familiar with biophysics, I realized that it is the discipline closest to my heart.I shared my enthusiasm with my biophysics professor, Dr. William Ryu, a Harvard graduate,who gladly took me into his lab.I am currently conducting a new and fascinating research at Dr. Ryu's biophysics lab, which involves quantifying behaviour of model organisms in 3 dimensions, using MATLAB programming language and LabVIEW software.The project has captivated me and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to use my skills while developing new ones in the environment of this demanding, but also very rewarding laboratory atmosphere. (For our work see the Ryu lab website: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~wryu/ryulab/people/people_v5.html )

By getting a Ph.D. in biophysics I will have the gratification of conducting research in the field that is most exhilarating to me, contributing to the scientific community as well as to the development of my motherland.