Excellence in science springs from diverse pursuits as youth

Sree Kutty’s ascent to the cosmos began with a childhood spent toggling the parallel channels of fine arts and hard science.

Born in Kerala, India, Kutty and her family emigrated to the United States when she was just a year old, following her father’s job at CGI to Virginia, Vermont, Kansas and finally, three years later, to Hawaii.

Kutty’s parents did their best to retain their Indian identity in their new country, a fidelity to their values and culture that Kutty sometimes found confusing.

“Mom gave me rules for how to dress and how to talk, but at school there were different rules,” she said. “When I reached middle school, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be American or Indian. Over time I realized that I didn’t have to choose a side. I could live as an Indian in America. I found a nice medium where I wouldn’t forget my roots, but instead would build upon them.”

Kutty said that like many Indian parents, her father, Maiju, and mother, Savitha, made sure that her upbringing was rich in the arts. As a child she took singing lessons, studied piano and violin, and learned ballet, tap and the Indian dance Bharathanatyam.

At the same time, Kutty said, her parents also pushed her to excel in math and science, disciplines that well fit her inquisitive tendencies.

“I was interested in figuring out different theories, experimenting and seeing what conclusions I could draw,” Kutty said. “Even if my hypothesis was wrong, I liked the process that brought me to that conclusion.”

When Kutty was in eighth grade, her mother put her in touch with a laboratory at the University of Hawaii that afforded her an opportunity to explore her growing interest in environmental science.

Her initial experiments centered on whether food waste could be converted to energy via anaerobic digestion.

Over the next couple of years, Kutty and St. Andrew’s Priory classmate Ariana Kim refined the project to explore the potential of fermenting invasive algae to produce ethanol, fertilizer and carbon nanotubes.

The project drew wide acclaim, placing third in the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and second in their return appearance this year.

Their second-place finish came in the highly competitive environmental engineering category, which drew 109 entries.

As part of their prize, both Kutty and Kim had asteroids named after them, a celestial recognition that Kutty found “pretty cool.”

“I used to dream of having something named after me,” she said.

Kutty is preparing to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she will study biological engineering.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.