My father, Kenneth Oh, is the Global Marketing Manager II at the BioRad campus in Hercules. He is my greatest hero in the field of science, since he has changed the lives of my family and I massively through simply pursuing his interest and career in the field of science. He has grown my curiosity in a plethora of subsections of STEM, as well as changing the way I think and process things. From a young age, as any adult in my life can tell you, I have always been full of questions. Why is the sky blue? Why do Dad’s beard hairs feel like cactus needles? Is my hypothesis that all elements are on a spectrum of radioactivity correct? Despite my age, my dad never shied away from answering my questions like an adult, and it furthered my comprehension of scientific topics. It taught me ways that scientists express their findings and ideas, and most importantly, challenged me to think on a level I may not have been comfortable to think about before, making me at a level more advanced than my age. Also, he always took my questions as an opportunity to create more abstract discussion, answering them with more statements and theory, opening up more broad scopes of what we could have been talking about. I love how he can never stay on the original topic I ask him about, because it forges connections that I never would have made, opening my mind to advanced topics, constantly stoking the fire that my questions ignite. He is adept at keeping theoretical and scientific speculation thriving in conversations I have with him, which I believe makes me a smarter and more creative person. Though it sounds cliché as a math major, I often find patterns or effects much easier to plot through the use of common metrics and statistics. Often, I plan out elaborate experiments in my head where I can create a personal experiment, where I find a number or percent that will tell me if one phenomenon is actually present, or if one particular thing can cause another thing. For example, I want to understand if the magnesium glycinate that I am taking will actually improve my sleep, so I consider using a fitness watch to track the amounts of REM and deep sleep I get on and off the vitamin. Maybe this isn’t so different from the conventional methods of taking a vitamin and tracking its effects in your head to see if you can feel its influence, but I believe subtle nuances like this make my cognition a little more unique and in the format of science. I believe this comes from the way my dad taught me to approach finding solutions, as he did in my 4th-grade science project, which went on to win a school award for excellence. He taught me the scientific method and ways to accurately measure and contrast things that you are measuring so that you can answer a question in the best way possible. Without my father to steadily drive abstract thought in my developing mind through scientific exploration, I am not sure of the person I would be today. I am glad that he has shaped me the way I am because I see the unique perspective I have and the figurative science goggles I wear every day as a strength, which gives me a point of view others may not consider. I believe that makes me a valuable part of discussions, and it is all thanks to my hero, my dad.