Viviana Gradinaru was raised by her parents and grandparents in a farming community in northeastern Romania, when Romania was part of the Eastern Bloc. The future Caltech professor was the first in her family to attend college.

In secondary school, she participated in local and national physics competitions. She ultimately was accepted to the University of Bucharest on the basis of her outstanding performance in physics competitions.</p> <p><img alt="Viviana Gradinaru looking through a microscope.

read more