Asha Nayak M.D.

Medtronic
Northridge, CA

2002 Stertzer Fellow
Asha Nayak received a BS with Honors in Biochemistry from Florida State University in 1989. While an undergraduate, she worked on projects at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Bell Laboratories, and The Dow Chemical Company. Her work resulted in a seminal article in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine which paved the way for brain MRI imaging in humans, and a patent application for a real-time CO2 blood gas sensor. She then studied Neuroelectrophysiology in England on a Rotary International Fellowship, and returned to complete a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Colorado in 1996. Her doctoral research on the mechanisms of memory formation resulted in first-author papers in journals such as PNAS and Nature, as well as the development of a novel electrode that has since been widely adopted in the field. In 1998, she received an MD from the University of Colorado. She has recently completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University. While training clinically, she provided technology assessment for several venture funds, and in one case led a substantial restructuring of a start-up company. Active also in community service, she helped to organize a large-scale fundraising campaign to support a new shelter for battered and disabled women in India which opened in December, 2000. She is currently working for Medtronic in their Advanced Products Division.