Whether she's captaining the men's club hockey team or participating as the first openly autistic cast member on "Survivor," the Brown graduate student in fluid and thermal science finds success in authenticity.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - As a kid growing up around the lakes of Minnesota, Eva Erickson saw her fair share of kayaks - but she had never seen one like her uncle's.
The kayak had a unique pair of fins at its back, and when its pedals were put into motion, the fins moved side-to-side, propelling the kayak forward. The feature was inspired by penguins, her uncle explained: the movement mimicked how a penguin's wings allow it to glide through water.
"I was like, 'Wait, so somebody had to study how a penguin swims in order to make this kayak?'" Erickson said. "That's so cool. That's what I want to do."
So she did.
In college, Erickson studied centipede locomotion at the Georgia Institute of Technology, researching how the arthropods traversed complex terrain. After graduating in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in physics, she enrolled in a doctoral program at Brown's School of Engineering.
"I wanted to find research that I'm really passionate about," Erickson said.
