Student Profile: Esha Ananth
Esha Ananth was selected for the 2026 Bioengineering Chair’s Award, which honors one graduating senior for their outstanding achievements in an area of personal passion, in addition to maintaining the highest academic performance. She graduated in May 2026 from the Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (MET) Program, giving her dual degrees in Bioengineering and Business.
From Irvine, CA, Esha feels profoundly influenced by the immigrant experience of her parents and the community around her. In addition to emphasizing the value of education, growing up in a family of engineers inclined her toward a life of building and tinkering. A high school project on aquaponics sparked her interest in engineering solutions to benefit living things, and in learning the business skills to help bring those solutions to the people who need them.
“The intersection between STEM and business in the MET program really interested me from the beginning; it felt like the kind of opportunity that could really set you up for life. After four years I still agree with that. I may not start my own business right away, but I’ve learned how to understand both the technical and business sides of problems in a way that many people focused only on one side sometimes can’t.”
Esha found many supportive communities at UC Berkeley, in her majors, the lab, and even dance.
“One thing I appreciated about both programs, but especially bioengineering, was that they made a huge effort to make me feel like I wasn’t just one of a million students.The AFX dance group was also a really great way to meet people I never would’ve met otherwise, and it became one of the biggest communities I had on campus.”
As an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Sanjay Kumar’s lab she worked on projects examining different factors that affect how glioblastoma cells (brain tumors) behave, including an especially exciting investigation into the role of proteases like hyaluronic acid degradation enzymes and matrix metalloproteinases in invading the brain.
“In the lab, I got to interact with grad students on a daily basis and really see what that life is like, which was a very valuable perspective. In addition to the research, it was also seeing how they solve problems, what they do for fun, and how they build a life for themselves in a place that’s kind of a fourth home.”
This fall Esha will begin the PhD program in bioengineering at Rice University, planning to pursue a career in research and development in drug delivery at a biotech or biopharma company.
“Eventually, she said, “I’d love to take this investigative research and apply it toward developing actual therapies and delivery systems that can make a real clinical impact.”