USC alumna Tiffany Mays is equally adept at playing the flute and pipetting into a flask. So it’s only fitting that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart influenced one of her first forays into scientific research.

“My first science experience was through the American Museum of Natural History in New York City where I did a program for high school students after school,” said Mays, who is currently preparing to defend her thesis as part of USC’s master of science program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine and a member of the Jadhav Lab. “My project was on the morphological diversity of the North American starling, and I actually chose the project because I was performing the Mozart concerto ‘Magic Flute’ at the time. I read that Mozart had a pet starling, and so I decided to combine both of these interests into one.”

This early research experience confirmed that science was her calling. For her undergraduate degree, she chose to attend USC, where she majored in human biology with an applied physiology focus and minored in health care studies.

To read more, visit https://stemcell.keck.usc.edu/where-are-they-now-masters-program-alumni-tiffany-mays.