Solving a really hard puzzle often comes down to three things: persistence, creativity, and the right tools. So, the more tools you have in your toolbox, the more likely you are to find one that fits.

Growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, Dr. Mavalvala’s life seemed to have a straightforward trajectory. She was always interested in math and science, and the work came easily to her. So easily, in fact, that by the time she was in high school, she’d been hired as a substitute teacher to teach 8th grade math.

But, like any clever problem solver knows, sometimes the most challenging puzzles require you to think outside of the box.

So when it came time to choose a school, Dr. Mavalvala decided to try something a little bit different. She moved to the US, where she enrolled in a liberal arts college so that she could cultivate a creative mind to serve her curiosities. As a queer woman of color, she also began to develop her interests as an advocate for breaking stereotypes. And as a lifelong athlete, she developed a deep respect for the role of failure and persistence on the path to success. 

Across her experiences, she found that no matter how good you are or how much you care, progress is rarely linear or easy. That knowledge came in handy when she started graduate school at MIT. 

As a student in astrophysics, she failed her PhD candidacy exam. And then she failed again. Rather than give up on her work or herself, she kept pushing to improve, to grow, and to learn from her mistakes. Until finally, she passed. 

With her toolbox now full, she set her sights on solving one of the most elusive puzzles in all of the cosmos: black holes. She began looking for gravitational waves, a phenomenon that had never been directly observed before. To detect them, she challenged herself to look to outside fields, like optics and quantum mechanics, for insights that might inform her own search for answers — often stumbling upon new questions instead. Finally, after decades of creative problem solving and refusing to give up, Dr. Mavalvala and her colleagues succeeded, gravitational waves were detected for the first time, and the work she contributed to was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. 

It wasn’t just her scientific training that made Dr. Mavalvala the renowned scientist that she is today. Through sports, she learned the power of persistence and overcoming defeat. Through the arts, she learned the importance of an open mind and a creative process. And through the problems she solved, she learned that the solution to one puzzle is often just the first clue for the next one.