When USC Stem Cell scientist Yulia Shwartz experiences the thrill of scientific discovery, she often thinks of a line that Charles Darwin wrote in The Voyage of the Beagle: “every traveller must remember the glowing sense of happiness, from the simple consciousness of breathing in a foreign clime, where the civilized man has seldom or never trod.”

Shwartz’s own scientific voyage to becoming a USC assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine began with her fascination with the medical careers of her parents and paternal grandparents. When she was six years old, her father, who is a cardiologist, and mother, who is a nurse, moved their family from Russia to Israel. They were among 1.6 million Soviet Jews who emigrated to Israel in the 1990s, many of whom were doctors, engineers, and other highly educated professionals.

After completing high school in Israel, Shwartz dedicated two years to compulsory military service as a Navy medic, and then majored in medical sciences at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“I had this amazing course in developmental biology, which blew my mind,” she said. “It was the science experiments, the type of questions and the creative way people approached them. And the cherry on top was that science comes in pretty pictures. I literally fell in love. I was completely hooked.”

To read more, visit https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/yulia-shwartz-science-gives-her-goosebumps.