Megan M. Monsanto’s interest in science has been a constant. By pursuing a career in research, she is able to combine the joy of tackling an unsolved problem with the satisfaction of helping to prevent or treat pathological disease. Recently, this passion led to her research being published as the Editor’s pick in Circulation Research and featured on the front page.

Currently a joint doctoral student in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at San Diego State University (SDSU) and University of California, San Diego, Megan felt very honored to receive the ARCS Scholar Award during her doctoral study.

“It is amazing to be a member of an organization that has been so influential in advancing science in the United States,” she said. “Several of my peers were ARCS Scholars and I was always amazed at how talented they were, so it feels wonderful to be among such a high caliber of research scientist.”

Monsanto also said that the confidence ARCS Foundation had in her potential to advance means a great deal.

“I look forward to having a career in research and health care and understand that it all starts with a sound foundation in education and the experience I will gain while a graduate student here at SDSU will be incredibly beneficial in setting me on my path to future discoveries,” she said. “The ARCS Scholar Award has helped me to achieve my goals by funding my education in the Ph.D. program as well as allowing me to travel to conferences to share my research with others in the scientific community.”