Gillian Hayes experienced a migratory life growing up, as her parents would move the family from state to state pursuing careers in academia at universities. After landing in Athens, Georgia, she discovered her talent for the Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) field. And, as her own academic career began to unfold, Hayes eventually found herself with a fateful internship at the National Institutes of Health’s AIDS laboratory that helped define her future when her cultures grew mold and didn’t yield the results they needed.

Read the full story on the UCI News Applied Innovation website.