Moataz (Moe) Gadalla '06

Moe Gadalla chose Cornell because he was interested in two very different fields, chemical biology and biomedical engineering. He felt Cornell was unique in that it blended both these very different fields into one major, chemical and biomolecular engineering.

Gadalla's major extracurricular activity and passion is teaching. He was a tutor and a teaching assistant for an array of classes at Cornell and tremendously enjoyed working with the students. He came to truly experience and appreciate the enormous amount of talent, diversity and uniqueness of each Cornell student.

Although he did not experience drastic turning points at Cornell per se, Gadalla did undergo transitions. The most notable was during his research, when he transitioned from a student trainee, trying to learn how to conduct research, to a young scientist.

He says, "The faculty at Cornell influenced my education the most. Particularly, the faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering, whether it is Professor T. Michael Duncan with his continuous guidance or Professor David Putnam with his research discussions. In addition, my research mentor, Professor Hess, played a profound role in molding me into a young scientist."

Gadalla goes on to say a memory he treasures the most is, "working with my senior design team, Raluca Scarlat, Sean Branagan and Alex Morris. In chemical engineering, the seniors are organized into four-member teams to work on a semester-long plant design project. We worked hard together, but we also had a lot of fun together, in the process forging a true friendship and a unique collection of memories."

Plans for the next few years include attending Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine M.D.-Ph.D. program. Gadalla has an interest in tackling neurodegenerative disorders as a physician-scientist, i.e., seeing patients with neurodegenerative disorders as well as conducting research to obtain a better understanding of these disorders.