Faculty of Arts and Sciences

For Sonia Meytin '26, the road to bioengineering began close to their home in Bethesda, Md.

"I was passionate about biology from an early age," says Meytin. "I remember being maybe six, seven years old, going to the lake with my friends, dragging home a water bottle full of tadpoles, trying to convince my parents to let me grow them. That didn't go over very well."

Eventually, Meytin's focus turned to small-scale molecular biology, genetics, and genomics. "It's just so fascinating to see the different ways in which organisms work, and at the end of the day, how we're all just kind of the same. That really got me into computational biology, which is the field I do research in now," they say. 

Computer science runs in the family. Meytin's parents, who emigrated to the U.S. from Baku, Azerbaijan, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the 1990s, are both software engineers. "We are Jewish, we speak Russian at home, and we eat Armenian and Azerbaijani food," says Meytin. "I bring that background into everything I do." 

And some of what they do is artful, as well as scientific. 

"In addition to being a project manager, my mother runs a stained-glass studio," Meytin says. "So from her I learned how to do stained glass, fused glass, and a bit of jewelry—my grandfather on my father's side was a jeweler—so, learning from both my mother's and father's sides of the family, it's nice to have this hobby to kind of make my life a little prettier, a little nicer. Especially with heavy things going on in the world."

In high school, as an intern at George Mason University, Meytin embarked on the first of many experiments fusing arts and sciences. And research seems to be in their own DNA. 

"I got to work with a professor who was studying proteomics, which is the science of proteins. And my project was on the music that proteins make. Because as it turns out, if you scale up the minuscule vibrations in any molecule, it sounds like music. It really got me thinking, you know, that the world is so humongous, but really it's all made up of little tiny bits."

That project was published in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. In a second internship, at Rutgers University, Meytin successfully sequenced and analyzed a novel "orphan clone" gene to be published in the GenBank DNA sequence database. 

At Dartmouth, Meytin is a double major in biology modified with mathematics and comparative literature. They left Hanover for two semesters—once to study at Harvard, then to intern at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering where Meytin conducted an in-depth literature review of the ethical, philosophical, and sociological impacts of the kind of STEM research in which they are now engaged at Dartmouth. 

“In my senior thesis I'm going to take a comprehensive look at quantifying cervical and vaginal tissues across a range of medical experiences and gender identities, with both an ethics component, a mathematical or modeling component, and a laboratory component, through my work at the Goods Lab at the Thayer School of Engineering,” says Meytin. 

Under the guidance of Britt Goods, the lab's principal investigator and assistant professor of engineering, Meytin has been exploring how different hormones impact the function of cells in the genital tract.

For example, says Meytin, "from the perspective of gender-diverse individuals, you have to consider how hormone replacement therapy during menopause would interact with any medications being taken for gender-affirming care."

In the two years Meytin has been working in the lab, Goods says, "Sonia has really grown as a researcher, through dedication, a willingness to try new things, and an ability to fully commit time for research during their busy Dartmouth terms."

Recently, says Goods, Meytin worked on analyzing data generated through a collaboration with Geisel professor Soni Lacefield's lab. "As part of this work, we wanted to use single-cell RNA-sequencing to help understand how a mutation in a certain gene can lead to improper cell cycle regulation in oocytes (egg cells)."

The research paper reporting these findings lists Meytin as an author. Meytin also recently presented their work at the Society for the Study of Reproduction annual meeting.

"I think one of the things that sets Sonia apart is their ability to summarize their work well," Goods says. "Dartmouth's liberal arts education, which emphasizes writing, is key to research success."

Outside the lab, Meytin leads an extraordinarily busy life, singing in the Handel Society, captaining the fencing team, and leading Within, an LGBTQIA+ advocacy group on campus. They are also president of oSTEM, which helps LGBTQIA+ students access research, mentorship and resources, as well as the incoming president of the Gender Inclusive Greek Council. 

As a former LGBTQIA+ student coordinator for the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, Meytin helped create (and likes to hang out in) the Rainbow Room in Robinson Hall, a small study with "a little queer library." An executive member of the Dartmouth Science Olympiad, which hosts a tournament every year for high school students, they are a Presidential and Coulter Scholar and WISP Mentor.

"In their many meaningful interactions with fellow students active in NEXT, Sonia has shown how liberal arts can inform a holistic research agenda, honing skills like critical thinking, ethical considerations, interdisciplinary connections, and cultural awareness," says Ansley Booker, the Penny and Jim Coulter 1982 Executive Director of Dartmouth NEXT. "This approach has made Sonia and their peers uniquely capable of addressing modern challenges with both technical expertise and humanistic insights."

Those insights, says Andrea Tarnowski, associate professor of French and comparative literature, showed up soon after Meytin arrived on campus. 

"Sonia plans to write an honors thesis on accuracy in the translation of Russian poetry, a topic which speaks to a consistent desire to cross disciplinary bridges. Forging the path of translation from one language to another requires keen analysis, discernment, steadfast effort, and creative problem-solving."

All those strengths, says Tarnowski, have enriched Meytin's work in STEM subjects, as well. 

"Sonia has recently stepped up to preside over the Dartmouth Undergraduate Research Association, and is eager to see that organization foster student work in the humanities and social sciences as well as in the sciences. Embracing multiple fields and engaging with several lines of inquiry define Sonia's intellectual perspective." 

Attending Dartmouth, says Meytin, has broadened their horizons, in and beyond the classroom.

"At first, I was really, really laser-focused on how I could get the most out of this school academically, joining no clubs for fun and taking all hardcore STEM classes. I was determined to get a perfect grade in everything, come out of here with whatever honor that Dartmouth can bestow upon me, and do great things in the world."

And even though Meytin is reaching many of those goals, along the way, they say, "I realized that there is more to life than academics."

Case in point: the widening cluster of extra-curricular initiatives through which Dartmouth NEXT helps students like Meytin find each other as they explore diverse career pathways.

"Supporting people pursuing STEM careers by connecting them to resources, providing them with programming, helping them attend conferences, submit research proposals, apply for grants—all that gives me hope," says Meytin. 

Meytin plans to attend graduate school with the aim of teaching at a college or university that supports and promotes ethical, useful research.