Most students at HHS know senior Aravind Krishnan as one of the school’s brightest minds. This summer, Krishnan spent his time applying his extensive knowledge of science to different programs and organizations.

One of these includes Krishnan’s own non-profit organization, Simply Neuroscience, which he has led since August of 2019 as the organization’s President and Board Chair. This summer, Krishnan organized two major educational events for people all over the world to participate. First, was The International Youth BrainSTEM Summit where participants from over 40 countries submitted projects as part of a competition. The second was when he co-hosted a four day Simply Neurocon Conference with participants from over 70 countries. In both of these activities, Krishnan had participants learning about neuroscience-based ethics, engineering, public health, and many other things.

This summer, while participating in conventions for science, Krishnan also made sure to do his part helping out his community by volunteering as an EMT. He volunteers as an EMT with the East Millstone First Aid Squad where he can apply his interest in medicine and care for people who need his help.

“It is both exciting and gratifying,” Krishnan said. “Being an EMT during COVID-19 has presented me with unique challenges, but it is still rewarding to interact with patients.”

While Krishnan has been helping people who are struggling during COVID-19 as an EMT, he has also done his part to control the pandemic in a more unique way. That is, finding a treatment for the virus.

Krishnan was selected to attend The New Jersey Governor’s School in the Sciences (NJGSS) as one of the 60 top high school scientists across New Jersey. While participating in this virtual program, he conducted innovative research projects with a team of a few other NJGSS Scholars. These research projects included one in which Krishnan and his teammates identified and developed small-molecule drug treatments for COVID-19.

“We ultimately wrote a research paper titled ‘Computational Drug Discovery For COVID-19 Through Identification of Candidate FDA-Approved Small Molecules Targeting 12 SARS-CoV-2 Proteins'”, Krishnan said. “We wrote this paper regarding our findings, and our proposed therapies for COVID-19, which we hope to publish soon.”

Whether he is finding a cure for the Coronavirus, or (hopefully not) showing up on your doorstep as an EMT, Krishnan’s participation in his summer activities have left a lasting impact on the community and the world.