One After Another: How Nikhil Modayur Built His Research Identity Through Relentless Curiosity

What does it take to ask a professor for coffee as a freshman and talk your way into a research project? For Nikhil Modayur, a Stamps Scholar at Tulane University, the answer has always been the same: the willingness to begin before you feel ready.

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Nikhil arrived at Tulane in the fall of 2023 as a double major in Neuroscience and Computer Science, pre-med, with his sights set on dementia and Alzheimer's research. He had a plan. He did not stick to it.

In his very first semester, while still adapting to university life, Nikhil cold-emailed a Tulane University professor developing accessible technology in the A11Y Lab. The email led to a coffee chat. The coffee chat led to an exchange of ideas. And the exchange of ideas led Nikhil to join the A11Y Lab, which, at the time, was exploring the use of computational methods for real-time ASL (American Sign Language) translation in healthcare settings. The more Nikhil researched, the more he realized that this was an ambitious goal, and one that would, for now, prove ahead of what current technology could reliably deliver. Rather than abandoning the work, the team pivoted, redirecting their efforts toward building a learning tool for EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) (Tactical Emergency Medical Support) to learn ASL with live-feedback capabilities.  "There was a lot of change," he reflects. "Research is something you have to go and figure out as you go along." It was a long project, spanning the better part of two years, from Nikhil's first year to the beginning of his junior year. Last semester, Nikhil completed user testing on the project and produced a presentation and publication at the 26th ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, one of the leading international venues for accessible computing research.

Alongside the A11Y Lab work, he began a second research project in biophysical chemistry during his sophomore year, which was also his first encounter with the wet lab, and the physical, tactile reality of science conducted with pipettes and solutions rather than code and datasets. That project is ongoing, and Nikhil will be presenting his findings at the American Chemical Society’s spring conference. But it was the wet lab experience that pushed him toward his next step: the world of REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) programs. These nationally competitive summer fellowships give students full-time immersion in research at institutions beyond their own. For the sophomore-year summer, he applied to twenty-seven programs. Three or four said yes. He went to Dartmouth University during that summer, where he spent three months doing radiation oncology research, moving between the lab and the clinic, and sitting in the hours in between in the cancer centre lobby, among the patients. It was not something he had planned for. But the more time he spent there, the more the research ceased to be abstract. "The more time I spent with patients he says, " This past cycle, he applied to eighteen REU programs. He got into the Computational Biology Summer Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering, which is one of the country's top cancer research institutions. He had always wanted to get this research experience and applied last summer, but could not make it. He did now.  "You only needed one to work," he says. "The moment I received the offer from MSK, I knew that it all paid off."

Balancing multiple research projects simultaneously, sustaining a course load heavy enough to support what has grown into a triple major, he has since added Cell & Molecular Biology to Neuroscience and Computer Science, while managing the ongoing labor of applications, outreach, and deliverables, demands a kind of discipline that most undergraduates take years to develop, if they develop it at all. When asked how he manages his time and workload, Nikhil shared that he deliberately divides his year, focusing on coursework and research during the semester and turning his full attention to applications during breaks. He treats every research commitment the way a serious student treats a class, with self-imposed deadlines and consistent daily effort. “For any volunteering, research, or work, treat it like a class. You have to set deadlines for yourself and work as if you are taking a class and are graded on it.”

For undergraduates wondering how to begin, Nikhil's advice is to start early; he urges them to start earlier than they feel necessary, because the time between sending a cold email and contributing meaningfully to a lab is longer than anyone expects. It is attributed to professors' schedules, for example, some professors could get extremely busy at certain times, logistics like getting CITI and IRB approval, and the slow rhythms of institutional life slicing between exams, midterms, breaks, and summers. Second, “be picky when selecting the PI and the graduate students that you will work with”, Nikhil noted. Additionally, you must be specific about what kinds of work you want to do now and in the future, because working for the wrong lab will waste your time.  And do not be passive: if you want a publication, push for it, and if you want a conference paper, make it happen. Do not wait for someone else to map the path. "You have to be proactive about what you want," he says. "Don’t expect someone to sort it out for you." For those interested in applying to REUs, he highly recommends seeking out Kim Wheeler for guidance; she knows the landscape and can help students navigate it, as she did for Nikhil. “I’m very excited to get started at MSK this summer, especially since with REUs, you get to do impactful research without having to split your time between other commitments. Go for REUs if you are interested in pursuing research, I highly recommend it”.

By the spring of 2026, Nikhil Modayur is a junior with over three years of research experience spanning computer science, chemistry, and oncology, wet and dry labs alike. He has a publication in an international accessibility conference, a second paper approaching completion, and a summer at one of the country's premier cancer research programs ahead of him. Looking further ahead, he plans to apply to medical school and to pursue his growing interest in computational cancer research.

But what is most striking about his journey is not the list of achievements, impressive as it is. Still, the shape of it: the way one project led to another, the way each pivot opened a door he had not known was there, the way a coffee chat in his first semester set in motion a chain of curiosity that has not stopped moving since. Research, for Nikhil, has never been a straight line. It has been something closer to what he describes in his own words, “something start and figure out as you go along.” And it turns out, if you are willing to keep going, that is more than enough.

 

Nikhil K. Modayur is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science at Tulane University, majoring in Neuroscience, Computer Science, and Cell & Molecular Biology. He is a Stamps Scholar with research experience across accessible technology, chemistry, and computational biology.

Ngoc Diep (Alice) - [email protected]