Scott Valastyan is one of those 21-year-olds who already knows what he wants in life. Growing up near Chicago, he chose Cornell for its reputation for encouraging undergraduate research. After three years of diligent work in a research lab and an upcoming publication as the first author, he has moved closer toward realizing his dream of establishing his own laboratory.

Jason Koski/University Photography

Scott Valastyan has been studying cancer biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"I'm the first person in my family to go to college outside of Illinois. My mother is a freelance editor for a magazine, and my father was working in a factory before he passed away. I'm definitely the first person going into the sciences and also the first to attend graduate school," says Valastyan, who has chosen the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (over Harvard, Princeton and several other institutions) for pursuit of his Ph.D. this fall.

"MIT has an incredible collection of faculty in cancer biology, including several Nobel laureates, which really appealed to me," he adds.

Valastyan has been studying cancer biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for a reason dear to his heart:

"When my dad died from cancer, I started to seriously think about how cancer can be, if not eradicated in the future, at least controlled as much as possible, so that others don't have to go through what happened to my family. If there is anything I can possibly do about it, I refuse not to do so," he says.

Majoring in molecular cell biology, Valastyan has been working with Danny Manor, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, since his sophomore year on vitamin E and its ability to modulate different activities within human cells.

"I definitely consider class at most my third priority, behind doing research and fulfilling my responsibilities for Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity," he says. As president of the organization, Valastyan has tried to promote scholarship, not just in terms of traditional class work, but also to provide members an opportunity to experience a diverse spectrum of other activities.

"I have the privilege of knowing what I want to do with my life, and I figure I might as well pursue it as soon as possible so that I can achieve my goals that much sooner." He says he never truly appreciated his undergraduate research opportunity until he visited graduate schools this spring and talked with other students.

"For many students from other universities, even other top universities, the opportunity that they have to conduct meaningful research as undergraduates is significantly less than what Cornell offers," says Valastyan, who has made the dean's list every semester with his 4.12 GPA.

Valastyan also has worked as an academic adviser for entering students, both through the biology department and the Cornell Presidential Research Scholars program. He is the recipient of a Merrill Presidential Scholarship, which is given to the top 1 percent of graduating seniors every year based on academic achievement and leadership, and he also received the Paul Schreurs Memorial Award for excellence in undergraduate research, which is given to one graduating student each year in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Graduate student Zheng Yang is a writer intern at the Cornell News Service.