Nora Yang

Hi!! I’m so glad you’re here! The HumBio core was truly one of the experiences I am most grateful for from my undergraduate time at Stanford. It exposed me to so many new ways of thinking about science, people, and our world more broadly. It also introduced me to so many kind and interesting people, including other students and faculty. From my roots in the core, I grew fascinated by intersections between human wellbeing, environmental health, and political/social systems. I developed a concentration called the Ecology of Human Health and used this as a framework to study everything from the health impacts of migration to the selection pressures driving the evolution of infectious disease agents. In addition to the breadth HumBio allowed me, I dove deeply into immunology research as a research assistant in the Jagannathan lab, where I studied an epigenetic mechanism of hyperresponsivity among innate immune cells responding to malaria infection. This research ultimately became my honors thesis and afforded me the amazing opportunity to travel to Uganda to present my work and collaborate with scholars there. In addition to research, I had the privilege of being a TA for Dr. Kurina’s Principles of Epidemiology course. Beyond academics, I love all things outdoorsy (hiking, backpacking, kayaking, etc.), yoga, knitting and weaving (and more recently, crocheting!). I can’t wait to meet you all and to learn about what drives you as scholars and people!