Nitheyaa Shree’s wrapping up her senior year at Georgia State in a way she never anticipated: remotely, from her parents’ home in Duluth, Ga. She’s converted their quiet living room into a makeshift library and research lab. The neuroscience major moved out of her apartment near campus last spring when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

In addition to the piles of textbooks and research notes taking up real estate, she’s got her sheet music and the five instruments she plays — the violin, the cello, the piano, the veena (an Indian string instrument) and the nadaswaram (an Indian woodwind).

Shree has turned to music for comfort since she and her family moved to the United States from Chennai, India, when she was a young girl.

She knew nothing about American culture, but she did know about music. With training from her mom, she’d already developed a voice for Carnatic (traditional Indian) music and a hand for the veena. So, she did something she’s done ever since: She used what she knew to understand something she didn’t. She kept practicing her native Eastern music while her mom helped her explore Western music on the violin, piano and cello.

Before long, she’d tapped into a well of natural talent and was traveling around the country and abroad to perform with her older sister. The pair still entertain crowds today and even run a small school, the Shree Bala Music Academy, teaching about 25 students via Zoom.

Through her music, Shree has visited nearly all of the 50 states, drinking in everything there is to know about each of them while sharing a piece of herself. It’s made her feel at home here.

“It’s always been a little difficult merging everything as a first-generation immigrant while staying true to my Indian heritage, but I feel like I’ve found a balance,” Shree said.

In middle school, Shree uncovered another passion: science. She became fascinated by the idea that you could create an experiment to make sense of just about anything.

“That you could actually physically do something with your hands to answer a question was incredible to me,” she said.

It’s an approach she’d instinctively called upon her whole life — like experimenting with new music to adapt in America — but now she became keenly aware of it.

As a teenager, she threw herself into local and regional science fairs, and in high school took her inquisitiveness to the next level. She landed an internship her senior year in Emory University’s Translational Neuro-Engineering Lab, where she began to acquire hands-on laboratory skills.

When she began her studies as a freshman at Georgia State, Shree craved more knowledge about how neurodegenerative disorders could be treated. As a Presidential Scholar, she found her footing in the Honors College among peers who shared her drive for discovery and quickly applied for a University Assistantship as way to get her hands dirty.

Shree’s impressive trajectory caught the eye of professor Sarah Pallas, who invited her to work in her lab in the College of Arts & Sciences’ Neuroscience Institute — an honor made doubly impressive by the fact that senior faculty rarely take chances on freshmen or sophomores.

In the Pallas Lab, Shree studied the ways in which early visual experiences shape neural pathways. Her work earned her the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which recognizes stellar achievements in undergraduate research, in 2019.

Shree’s research progressed to assistant professor Angela Mabb’s lab in the Neuroscience Institute, where modern molecular biology and neuroscience are the focus. Under Mabb’s tutelage, Shree is finalizing her senior thesis project.

“Nitheyaa is fearless and possesses a rare level of intellectual curiosity, maturity, integrity and work ethic,” Mabb said. “It’s been a pleasure to have her in our group.”

The time spent assisting Pallas and Mabb has been integral to Shree’s personal development as a researcher who will be soon be ready to lead her own lab.

In December 2020, Shree became Georgia State’s first Marshall Scholar and one of only 46 students around the world to be granted the elite distinction.

Through the Marshall Scholarship, an acknowledgement of the highest academic merit and ambassador potential, Shree has been invited to conduct graduate-level research in neuroscience and pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

Eventually, she plans for a career designing therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“This research is really important in this time and age because a lot of the treatments and drugs we’re using already only provide temporary relief,” she explained. “I think going back to the molecular and cellular level of things will help us make certain drugs more effective. There’s certainly work to be done.”

Shree’s up for the challenge. When she sets off on her U.K. adventure next fall, she’ll have her quintet of beloved instruments in tow, and she’ll carry with her the special brand of courage and curiosity that has taken her this far.