Two Stellar Students Head to Graduate School: Elena Grigorescu and Tapan Maniar

Elena Grigorescu '04

At Bard, Elena Grigorescu concentrated in computer science and mathematics. In the latter, she delved deeply into Hilbert series. "My approach was totally theoretical," she says of that research. "It was pure algebra. But you never know where theoretical things can occur or where they may lead. I'm very rigorous when I think in math." She focused an identical rigor on her computer studies. That double focus has now led her to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she continues her math and theoretical computer science studies.

Acceptance to MIT is just the latest step in a series of pleasant surprises for Grigorescu. "Coming to Bard [from Romania] was such a luck that I wasn't expecting," she says, her enthusiasm allowing the syntax of her native language to creep into her spoken English. "I didn't know what a liberal college is. Romanian high school is broad. But once you are in university it's very fixed. Everybody goes to the same classes and the curriculum is outdated. But here . . ." She leaves the sentence unfinished, the lacuna a stand-in for Bard's academic expansiveness.

"Most of the reason that I'm into math is due to my father," Grigorescu says. A physicist and researcher in the industrial sector, he entertained his daughter by providing her with math puzzles. Those puzzles go further back than Grigorescu can remember. "My father just started it," she says, "and then my own interest took over. I think math goes well with my brain connections. It became a hobby." The hobby expanded into an abiding interest and Grigorescu has pursued mathematics, with great resolve, since sixth grade.

Romanian students are encouraged to participate in math "olympiads." This encouragement suited Grigorescu. "Olympiads really motivated me," she says. "I just pressured myself, and my family was happy when I achieved. Competition is pleasant and stressful and definitely makes you stronger." The math contests were graduated, starting at the local school level and moving, by degrees, to national tourneys. "This was the main thing that would happen in the academic year," she says. "It was fun. You would be in a room for hours, solving problems that required intense concentration. You had to know how to manage yourself and your mind."

Those early experiences, plus her Bard work, prepared Grigorescu well. She brought that preparation to an undergraduate internship at the IBM Almaden Research Center in California, working long hours on a large project at which 100 other undergraduate interns were also toiling. To make the project more manageable, it was segmented into different tasks, four students tackling each task. The separate groups maintained close contact and engaged in discussions. It was an intellectual environment as congenial to Grigorescu as Bard was. "I suddenly felt what life is once you grow up," she said of the IBM research. "I was happy with it."

Like her father, Grigorescu is considering doing research in the industrial sector. "I'm inclined toward cryptography and coding, especially algebraic coding," she explains. Because the encryption of data often derives from theoretical "schemes," this field may provide a smooth segue between Grigorescu's interests. "I may take the direction of quantum cryptography or quantum computing," she says. Both of these studies are based on Einstein's work in quantum theory and represent a fast-growing area in computer studies.

"I'm totally expecting to do hard research," says Grigorescu. "The research process is familiar to me. I know it can be frustrating. You work days and days just for that time when you have a glimpse. Then you think backwards in order to get to the solution you've glimpsed. But it's worth the pain. It's beautiful to learn new things."

Tapan Maniar '04

After graduating from Bard, Tapan Maniar seized an opportunity to spend two months at home with his family in Ahmendabad, India. He has not lived at home since he was 16, when he won a full scholarship from the government of Singapore and the Singapore airlines industry to complete high school in that nation. According to Maniar, competition for the scholarship was steep, with 25 students selected from an applicant pool of almost 10,000. The Singapore government hoped those scholarship students would become permanent residents. However, after completing high school, Maniar chose to accept a full-tuition scholarship to Bard. An unusually mature young man capable of canny assessments, he selected the United States because, he explains, "There are more facilities, more universities, more research options."

Maniar is following up on those U.S. options. After his postgraduation visit to India, he returned to New York last August to begin pursuing a Ph.D. in biology (molecular biology in particular) from The Rockefeller University. He anticipates following up the five-year Ph.D. program with two postdoctoral degrees and expects each of those degrees to require one or two additional years of study. Maniar was drawn to Rockefeller because he considers it "probably more flexible than any other institution. If a course is not available at Rockefeller, you can take it elsewhere. I can do research and pick a lab right away. I can do rotations and decide on a lab, based on topic and compatibility. Choosing your lab is the main thing. Rockefeller's less-rigid structure means you need to be self-motivated. I don't mind that." Maniar is already familiar with Rockefeller, having enjoyed an internship there last summer.

He is interested in developmental biology and cell biology. Although it is still too early to define his future in absolute terms, the study of the nervous system is his main focus. How are synapses formed? How are axons guided to the right connection? The answers to questions such as these are predicated on DNA mapping. Just as quantum computing is a "hot" area that has drawn Grigorescu's attention, the burgeoning field of neurology has drawn Maniar's. For example, due to recent discoveries, the possibility of regenerating nervous systems has stepped out of the realm of science fiction and toward reality.

If Maniar's intellectual life reflects an acute, analytic, and scientific mind, he has also surmounted a number of thorny nonacademic problems. As the only child in a family whose members have never been out of India, he is negotiating uncharted generational and global territory. "I think they have trust in me," he says of his parents and extended family. "They gave me good advice but allowed me to make my own decisions, which I really respect them for."

Maniar was first captivated by science in the eighth grade, while studying cell structure and mitosis. His fascination was fostered by his biology teacher who, Maniar says, "emphasized understanding and encouraged us to be curious, to ask questions."

Bard's Immediate Science Research Opportunity Program (ISROP), in which Maniar participated for two years, was also extremely helpful, providing, as its name indicates, an accelerated outlet for his deductive mind. "ISROP was crucial for me in terms of learning how research is done and how projects are designed," says Maniar. He also notes that ISROP paved the way for his internships.