ABOVE: Gloria Echeverria
AGAPITO SANCHEZ JR., BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
As a little girl, Gloria Echeverria didn’t want to be the president or a firefighter. Instead, she promised her mother that she would one day run the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her grade-school teachers encouraged her interest in science, Echeverria tells The Scientist. “Perhaps it subconsciously played some kind of role, seeing these awesome women who were so knowledgeable and passionate about the subject.”
Echeverria enrolled at Texas A&M University in 2004 with her sights set on a scientific research career. By her sophomore year, she was investigating how beneficial fungal organisms that grow on the roots of plants can be genetically enhanced to protect crops from pathogens. While wrapping up her undergraduate training in biochemistry and genetics, Echeverria began to apply for PhD programs, and she had a new focus—biomedical science. “I really wanted to take that ...
