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Kayla Sprenger became an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2020. She obtained her PhD at the University of Washington and completed her postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While Sprenger has found great success in her career, her journey into the world of engineering was rather unique. When she applied for the chemical engineering undergraduate program at the University of Washington, she was rejected. But Sprenger was not going to let this setback hold her back from accomplishing her goals, so she petitioned to have her rejection reconsidered. Sprenger successfully appealed her case and got into the undergraduate program.

 As an undergraduate student, she had no idea what research was until her faculty advisor suggested she join a research lab, she said. Sprenger was able to work in her faculty advisor’s lab, which was where she encountered computational work and immediately fell in love. Following her undergraduate research experience, Sprenger was determined to go to graduate school and pursue her ideas.

However, Sprenger’s challenges did not stop there. When applying for her postdoctoral position at MIT, she was faced yet again with another setback. She did not have a formal statistical mechanical background, which was a requirement for the position. Sprenger decided to challenge MIT. She proposed that she would take a statistical mechanics course during her last semester and achieved an A in the course. MIT accepted her challenge, and she was able to obtain the postdoctoral position. Sprenger said she was extremely proud of her achievements and credits her persistence and decisiveness for helping her fight through these challenges.

Throughout her journey into the world of engineering, Sprenger had an amazing mentor to support and help advocate for her, Jim Pfaendtner. One of Sprenger’s personal challenges was dealing with imposter syndrome. For example, giving presentations in front of large groups of people used to make her very nervous. Pfaendtner encouraged her to view this feeling as her superpower and helped Sprenger realize that it actually gave her an advantage, as it helps her be more prepared for anything she encounters.

Due to the amazing mentors, she has had, Sprenger said she is extremely passionate about mentoring and helping students accomplish their goals.

As far as what Sprenger wants to accomplish next, her research is focused on a holistic approach to infectious diseases such as HIV. She hopes to create the first simulation that simulates neuron degeneration in the brain caused by HIV and the drugs used to treat HIV to help design drugs that can treat the virus more effectively.

Sprenger said she is very proud of her journey and encourages students to persist in accomplishing their goals while living in the moment and doing their absolute best in what they want to do.

About the Author

My name is Jacqueline Rodriguez Mora, and I am a fourth-year student majoring in chemical and biological engineering. I am from Michoacán, Mexico, but moved to Fort Collins when I was 5 years old. I chose to write about Professor Sprenger because, from her very first lecture, I could tell she was extremely passionate about being a professor and about her research. Her enthusiasm and desire to help students succeed struck out to me and led me to reach out to her for advice on my career goals in pharmaceuticals. The advice that Professor Sprenger has given me on my career and life has helped me gain a greater understanding of what engineering journey I would like to take. I truly admire Professor Sprenger and view her as a strong, pioneering woman in engineering.