Having earned a PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at University of Michigan, Sheri is studying how germ cells — the precursor cells that become eggs and sperm — activate the correct genes that give them their potential to, eventually, become every cell type in a newly formed body. Although music has long been an important part of Sheri’s life — growing up playing flute, she harbored a dream to be a singer, and earned degrees in both music and science — volleyball is her nonscientific passion. “I started playing back in middle school, and it’s how I spend much of my time outside the lab,” she explains. “It's been the one constant in my life that I would say I truly cannot live without. These days, I play with the MIT women's volleyball club; we practice several times a week and compete in tournaments on the weekend.” In many ways, Sheri observes, research is like competitive team sports: “There is an inherent competitiveness to pushing scientific boundaries. But in the lab, we are working really hard together — competing as a team — to move our research forward. Having been a competitive team athlete, I’m comfortable pushing to try and advance science as much as I can.”