Domitilla Del Vecchio bridges math, engineering, and biology
Engineering was in Domitilla Del Vecchio’s blood from the very beginning: Growing up in Rome as the daughter of an engineer, she spent long hours of her childhood tinkering and playing in her father’s home laboratory and exploring the various bits of electronics and lab equipment he would bring home. “He had a lab at our place that was full of all these colorful pieces of computers, all opened up,” Del Vecchio recalls — and she delighted to learn about them. Then, in middle school, “I had this math teacher who had an unconventional way of teaching math: She started with the theory of numbers, an almost philosophical approach. … I was fascinated by that.” Del Vecchio attended a math-focused “liceo” — the Italian version of high school — where a “fantastic” biology teacher helped expand her interests in that field. But she then struggled to find a college where she could...