Alumni Magazine - Summer 2008 - (Page 33) Rajiv Saigal Spinal Cord Researcher, Future Physician T wenty-nine-year-old Rajiv Saigal gives multitasking new meaning. While pursuing a doctorate in medical engineering through a joint Harvard-MIT program, Saigal also is earning a medical degree through Tufts University. Saigal, who earned an electrical engineering degree at Tech in 2000 before heading to Aalborg Universitet in Denmark for a master’s in biomedical engineering, already has a curriculum vitae filled with honors and awards, research and teaching experience, papers and abstracts he has written and even a patent pending for methods and compositions for the treatment of open- and closed-wound spinal cord injuries. “I will be completing a PhD in medical engineering this fall. In the course of my PhD, I became interested in medicine and completed the first two years of med school curriculum while doing my research,” says Saigal, who also earned a fifth-degree black belt in tae kwon do in his spare time. He applied for and was accepted to Tufts with advanced standing and is the first PhD student the university has accepted directly into the third year of med school. Saigal hopes to work as both a scientist and physician and plans to begin a residency in neurosurgery in the summer of 2009. “Long term I imagine getting a faculty position at a medical school, operating as a neurosurgeon and running a laboratory specializing in spinal cord injury research.” He explains his research — and chops a board in half with his hand — on an MIT promotional video. “People who are paralyzed could be electrically stimulated to allow their muscles to move again. That idea was really fascinating to me,” says Saigal, who was part of a team that developed a polymer that was implanted into a lab rat. “We saw this rodent walking around that was previously paralyzed. It was sort of that ‘a-ha’ moment that we had finally achieved something that wasn’t achievable before.” Saigal looks forward to the possibilities. “That would be the most exciting day of my life, to see some of the things we’re working on in the lab make it inside a patient.” He is the recipient of research fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Whitaker Foundation. A President’s Scholar at Tech, Saigal’s honors as an undergraduate included receiving the J. Erskine Love Philanthropy Award and an Intel Foundation scholarship and being named the Omicron Delta Kappa Leader of the Year and Mr. Georgia Tech. A Tech education was “profoundly helpful in teaching me how to think critically, in introducing me to a community of talented students and mentors and in building a solid engineering knowledge base that I still utilize today,” Saigal says. — KLW Troy Matteson Pro Golfer G etting to play at this professional level is a very surreal dream. Each week I get to tee it up with guys that I have grown up watching on TV,” golfer Troy Matteson writes on his Web site. Since 2006, Matteson, CE 03, has won more than $3.7 million on the PGA Tour. With earnings from the Nationwide Tour, which he joined after graduating from Tech, Matteson has pocketed more than $4.3 million as a pro. “Each week brings new challenges to the table as far as course conditions, how I feel about my game at that point and traveling from point A to B,” Matteson writes. “However, at 28 years old I consider myself very lucky to be playing amongst the best of the best golfers in the world.” In 2002, Matteson became only the third golfer in Georgia Tech history to clinch the NCAA championship. Previous champs were Charlie Yates in 1934 and Watts Gunn in 1927. The NCAA title was Matteson’s fourth win of the season and that tied the school record of David Duval, Cls 93. Matteson also was named the Arnold Palmer National Player of the Year and a first-team AllAmerican. Matteson recorded his first collegiate victory during the 2001-02 season with a win at the Taylor Made/Waikoloa Intercollegiate. He followed that with wins at the Puerto Rico Classic and the Las Vegas Collegiate and thus became the first golfer in Tech history to win three straight starts. — KLW >>> Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine • Summer 2008 33
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