For nearly two decades, Sara Nakielny excelled as a biomedical researcher, publishing in influential journals, winning prestigious research fellowships and, since 2000, running her own six-person

lab at Cancer Research UK in London.

But an “unease” percolated beneath the surface of Nakielny’s success, leading her on a journey of self-examination. A trip to East Africa, and a chance meeting with a Peace Corps volunteer who provided HIV education to villagers proved to be a defining moment for the scientist. “I observed her integration into the community and the regard in which she was held,” Nakielny says of the volunteer. “My time in East Africa sowed the seeds of unease about my aspirations as a research scientist, in an area that could be viewed as esoteric at least in the short term.”

Nakielny made the bold decision to redirect her work toward fighting infectious and emerging infectious diseases in developing countries. Simply put, she wants to help prevent the “next HIV.”