Our guest today is Sowmya Purushothaman, a biophysicist & a research fellow at UC Merced in California. She is women in STEM advocate and an advocate for equal education in India. Sowmya graduated with a Ph.D. from Imperial College London and completed a postdoc from Cambridge University. She works with a grassroots level non-profit called the STEM foundation in Banglore, India, to provide education for all. In this episode we discuss: 1) Sowmya's multidisciplinary research in membrane biophysics & work in the field of Active Matter. 2) Her story of growing up in a civil unrest zone in Chattisgarh, India.  3) How her childhood shaped her life choices & her advocacy work? 4) Her passion for equal education, science communication and gender advocacy in STEM. Listen now to Sowmya's inspiring STEM story.    Links:  https://www.sowmyapurushothaman.com/about https://www.linkedin.com/in/sowmya-purushothaman-9a87a780 Sign Up For Our Upcoming Conference:  https://www.eventbrite.com/o/her-stem-story-is-a-weekly-women-in-stem-podcast-26539326901