Tejas S. Athni

Tejas Athni is an undergraduate student at Stanford University, originally from Macon, Georgia.

Currently, he is a student researcher in the Mordecai Lab (Department of Biology, Stanford), where he investigates mosquito-borne diseases using computational epidemiology and ecological modeling methods. Tejas is also a member of the Rohatgi Lab (Department of Biochemistry, Stanford), where he has helped to elucidate a new biochemical mechanism regulating heart development.

Tejas has been published in various peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as Developmental Cell and Ecology Letters. He has been recognized with numerous national and international awards, including the Goldwater Scholarship, the Coca-Cola Scholarship, the Neuroscience Research Prize from the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Statistical Association Award from Intel International Science & Engineering Fair. He has presented and discussed his research at various scientific and medical conferences, and public speaking venues such as TEDxPeachtree.

Tejas serves as an EMT in Santa Clara County, CA and vice president of Stanford EMS. He is a co-founder of Perfusion, an organization dedicated to providing CPR and emergency skills training to low-resource schools. A former All-Middle Georgia first team selection and 2x state champion in tennis, Tejas now enjoys competing on Stanford’s ultimate frisbee club team.

Previously, Tejas has been involved with plant biology and neuro-oncology research at Fort Valley State University (Fort Valley, GA) and Karmanos Cancer Institute (Detroit, MI). He was a member of a research team investigating glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain cancer, has worked to identify the reproductive barriers of two medicinal plants threatened under climate change, and has co-instructed research outreach programs sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture.