Meet the COSI Science Festival STEM Stars

From Iditarod Trail traveler to doctor serving as state representative for the Ohio House, the winners of the COSI Science Festival’s STEM Star program represent a wide range of individuals and professions.

What unites them all, though, is their vigilant dedication to STEM and science. COSI’s STEM Stars initiative aims to recognize “ordinary people doing extraordinary STEM work,” and there’s no better time than the week of the COSI Science Festival (May 4-7) to recognize them.

Here are the 2022 winners.

Dr. Erandi De Silva, 

Serving as both the co-founder and SVP of product development at the Grove City-based Forge Biologics, Dr. De Silva works daily to bring breakthrough gene technologies from idea to life-saving reality, as well as establish Columbus as an unsuspecting hotbed of medical technology. 

 Sumithira Vasu

As an associate professor of medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Stem Cell Therapy Lab, Vasu works to develop new stem-cell based therapies to patients with life-threatening diseases.

Representative Dr. Beth Liston

Dr. Liston is just as comfortable in an Ohio House representative’s suit as she is a medical doctor’s white coat, and that’s because she serves as both, and advocates staunchly for science education, no matter which role she’s in.

Jim Deprez

Whether Jim Deprez is teaching students along the Iditarod Trail—as the 2022 Iditarod Teacher on the Trail—or instructing them back home at Hilliard City Schools, he’s pushing for STEM education the entire time.

Aniket Vardhan

While Vardhan is an entirely self-taught motorcycle expert, that hasn’t stopped from tapping into his STEM skills to create his very own optimized engine design, known as the Musket v twin engine.

To learn more, visit cosiscifest.org

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