Paurnima Ghotikar

Paurnima Ghotikar
Chemical Engineering

Tell us more about your plans:
After graduation, Paurnima will work at GlaxoSmithKline in King of Prussia, PA as a Associate Scientist for their Mammalian Cell Culture Development Department.

Who/What has inspired you during your college career?
Paurnima's goal in life as a Chemical Engineer is to make the largest positive impact she can, using the technical expertise she has gained in college. Chemical engineers have changed the world through new energy sources, clean manufacturing plants, cutting edge medical devices, and healthier foods.

Her passion for these causes are transparent through her previous roles and permeate everything she does, whether through her 4 years in leadership roles through co-curricular activities or her industry experience.

To illustrate, since 2015, she has volunteered for a program called TASSEL, where she taught Cambodian children English. Flash forward to now, she is now the President of the Nebraska Division of TASSEL. Her students are malnourished and struggling to live, but they walk miles a day to attend my English classes. These kids have taught her the importance of learning: the strength that comes from understanding and applying the knowledge to get a better tomorrow. She hopes to help achieve that better tomorrow.

Serving others is important to Paurnima. As the President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at UNL and the aforementioned Nebraska TASSEL Division President, she understand that leaders exist to aid and serve as civil servants. In this vein, she aspires to earn her MBA in the future to hone in her leadership skills.

Paurnima holds these leadership roles in tandem with experiences demonstrating how engineers can make that positive impact she seeks. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she has worked in two widely different labs. The first was at an Environmental Engineering lab, where they fought to reduce Hazardous Air Pollutants as per EPA regulations. The second one that she currently works at investigates the interactions between liver stiffness and human hepatocyte and human stellate cells. Furthermore, her internship at AFB International focused on Probiotic viability in different foods.

As demonstrated above, she has already taken the necessary steps to make a difference in others’ lives. Her aim to continue to do this throughout her career.

The best thing about being a Husker is...
The feeling of being home.