Fellow Feature: Anubhav Shankar
On what makes the Fellowship experience different, the purpose behind his pursuit of medicine, and the sharing of knowledge
Anubhav Shankar is a first-year Fellow studying bioengineering with the intention of going into medicine .We were able to talk with Anubhav about how he found passions for computational research and teaching, as well as his take on the Fellowship and what he’s recently had the opportunity to dedicate time to at home.
On what you need to know about him
“My name is Anubhav Shankar, and I’m a junior, a bioengineering major, a pre-med student, and the world’s biggest fan of Avenir (the font), for which Fung has only allowed my love to blossom. I was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, where I spent the first 17 years of my life teaching myself coding and circuits alongside guitar and tennis. During this time, I discovered a longstanding passion for medicine and technology — rounded off with a love for Bollywood fusion dance and movies to satiate my American-born Indian identity.
I came to Berkeley with “pre-med” as my middle name, but in typical Berkeley fashion, I was provided an array of experiences and opportunities — some deliberate, some accidental — that allowed me to learn more than I ever imagined about myself, my passions, and the communities around me. Now, I spend my time (literally) skateboarding between computational neuroscience, teaching, and design.
On why he studies what he studies
My introduction to the realm of bioengineering, and specifically, the intersection of computational research and medicine, came through a relatively-early opportunity during my high school career, when hundreds of cold emails to doctors and scientists spread across the greater New York area resulted in my landing a research internship during my junior year at Mount Sinai Hospitals.
That summer was transformative in many ways. I traveled six hours every day, 3 hours each way from my home in Poughkeepsie to the lab at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City — quickly learning how to weave through peak rush hour at Grand Central. After a few days of HIPAA training, software installing, and literature review, my laptop had access to databases of hundreds of thousands of patient data points and I faced the challenge of finding a relevant, novel conclusion or pattern from the data.
The project itself was a blur of demystifying research papers, battling coding bugs, and $3 pizza slices at the corner opposite the hospital. By the end of those 12 weeks, I had contributed to the pipeline for tracking patient-to-patient spread of hospital-acquired infections and pathogen transmission clusters, while simultaneously working on my creative problem solving skills, coding, and developing a deep yearning to discover more about computational biology that would carry over to the start of my college career.
On how he became a Fung Fellow
I discovered the Fung Fellowship by accident — I still can’t remember whether it was a Facebook post or one of my Slack channels — but the words “health” and “technology” caught my attention immediately. Given that this is the exact intersection of my passions, I knew right away that this was something I had to be part of — a community of students I wanted to get to know and work with.
I attended an information session for the program which only further solidified my interest. The student panel exuded passion and ambition, but also amiability — a unique and quite rare combination that I both admire and strive to maintain. I was captivated by the idea of a class with challenges and projects that encourage creative problem-solving, teamwork, and health and technology-focused approaches, as opposed to merely problem sets and exams.
One year on, it’s been an incredible journey so far learning about human-centered design, developing solutions to challenging issues and building personal and professional skills such as graphic design and public speaking — all with the support of incredible faculty and peers.
“The student panel exuded passion and ambition, but also amiability — a unique and quite rare combination that I both admire and strive to maintain.”
On his current projects inside and outside the Fellowship
My current project within the Fung Fellowship is in collaboration with OLLI @Berkeley, working to tackle social isolation among elderly individuals and undergraduate students through a mentorship program. This challenge and our theme for this year, social isolation, aligns closely to my interests in the doctor-patient interaction in medicine, where an often-times-transactional relationship focused on the diagnosis and prescription can only provide half of the caregiving — the other half enriched through a more personal, human connection between patient and physician.
Fung introduced me to multiple new perspectives on similar social chasms that require creative solutions. Along similar lines of bridging various gulfs to overcome social isolation, in addition to this mentorship program, my past projects have allowed me to work on a digital platform to connect students through common interests and activities, and a smart video-calling device for elderly adults.
Following my unending curiosity to discover more about computational bioengineering, and wanting to explore its intersection with my interests in neuroscience, I began working as a research intern at the Grinberg lab at UCSF. Armed with just a foundational knowledge of programming and one semester of CS61A, it’s been an insanely-rewarding and informative experience learning and applying cutting-edge computer vision and machine learning tools to validate neuroimaging procedures that will allow for early predictions of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
On teaching, and its surprising similarity to medicine
When I first started at Berkeley, I felt like I was aimlessly stumbling towards the vague concept of “pre-med,” following the guidance of alumni, peers, the internet, etc, but never really looking inward. But aimless stumbling occasionally forces introspection, and thus over the last three years I finally have realized what I am passionate about, what kind of change I want to leave in this world, and how.
Since high school, I’ve continually noticed that I enjoy teaching. I coached students in the lower grades for Science Olympiad and math competitions often, excitedly awaiting the look of sudden epiphany and excitement to cross their faces when they understood a question or overcame a challenge. My grandmother had a saying that always resonated with me strongly. Loosely translated from Hindi, it says: “If you share food, one day it’ll run out; if you share money, one day it’ll be gone; but if you share knowledge, it only multiplies.”
Teaching has always played a special role for me and I continue to pursue it at Berkeley, as a peer tutor for physics at the Student Learning Center, as a volunteer coach and homework tutor at the Youth Tennis Association, and as a high school team mentor for the Bioengineering High School Competition. It’s the similarity between teaching and medicine that intrigues me, the practice of approaching a patient or student’s confusion and questions with compassion and guidance, and giving them the confidence that their health or their understanding will improve.
“It’s the similarity between teaching and medicine that intrigues me, the practice of approaching a patient or student’s confusion and questions with compassion and guidance, and giving them the confidence that their health or their understanding will improve.”
On his grandmother, and fighting Parkinson’s disease
My second passion was sparked early, but only truly developed during my time in college. During middle school, my grandmother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. With each visit to India, I saw her face grow expressionless, her movements labored, and her words incomprehensible. Eventually, I saw Parkinson’s for what it really was — not just nerve cell damage, decreased dopamine levels, and the 10 million affected individuals it’s defined by, but the lessening of personhood.
My passion for neuroscience is established in my respect for the doctors who treated my grandmother and others facing similar illnesses around the world. I am mesmerized by the complexity of the grey matter that makes us human, and I hope to understand both its function and its dysfunction as a doctor and a researcher so that I can one day contribute to reducing the number of grandparents who have to go through the ordeal that my grandmother did.
On finding opportunities in unprecedented times
This time of social distancing due to COVID-19 has been an unprecedented series of events for everyone, drastically changing our day-to-day lives and leading to new practices to ensure everyone’s safety. However, looking at the silver lining, it has also led to many opportunities to resume old hobbies or start new projects. I’ve been using this time at home during quarantine to resume teaching myself guitar, spend more time with my dog Cooper (between Zoom lectures and MCAT studying), and also start a new YouTube channel called The Physics Tutor to complement my tutoring and provide additional support remotely for students.
“I finally have realized what I am passionate about, what kind of change I want to leave in this world, and how.”
Connect with Anubhav // As told to Lauren Leung
Fellow Features is a series dedicated to showcasing the Fung Fellowship community and learning more about their lives and their stories. If you’re interested in being featured, email funginstitute@berkeley.edu.
Learn more about the Fung Fellowship at fungfellows.berkeley.edu.
