A master of public health degree will help Sri Harsha Soma connect his medical background, passion for research, interest in innovation and desire to create positive change in the world.
“There were wheelchairs for patients who needed them, but the pathway to the clinic was uphill and made of gravel, and the entrance to the hospital only had stairs,” recalls Soma. “I believed that I had the skills to find solutions to problems like this, I just didn’t know how to pursue them.”
That’s when a mentor suggested Soma pursue public health — a perfect field to marry his medical background, passion for research, interest in innovation and desire to create positive change in the world. Shortly after, he decided to enroll in a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Global Epidemiology program at Rollins School of Public Health.
Hatching new ideas through Emory collaborations
Soma was initially drawn to Rollins because of its strong partnerships throughout Atlanta and vast research ecosystem. But what sold him on pursuing graduate studies at Emory was the opportunity to network with a diverse range of professionals and grow skills outside of public health through programs like those offered at The Hatchery, Emory Center for Innovation.
Once he got to campus, Soma hit the ground running. He applied and was accepted into The Hatchery’s Incubator program to help him develop an idea for a device that can catch dropped barbells while lifting weights, inspired by his own journey with osteoporosis and a near injury in the gym.
“Before coming to Emory, I had an idea that I wanted to work on, but I failed in taking it forward because I did not have an engineering or business background,” says Soma. “I didn’t know how to scale the idea into something really meaningful.”
The Incubator program filled the gaps, teaching him the “innovation vocabulary” he needed to start talking about his ideas and growing his network of collaborators to help move them forward. That, and other programs he was involved in at The Hatchery, also gave him the confidence to tell his story.
“The Hatchery gave me a platform to express creativity without boundaries and to understand what I'm learning in public health from a different perspective as an entrepreneur,” says Soma. “Now I can call myself a physician-entrepreneur with a public health background.”
Building research foundations at Rollins
All of Soma’s entrepreneurial work outside the classroom enhanced his studies at Rollins. In a social entrepreneurship class taught through the Hubert Department of Global Health, Soma applied lessons learned from his real-world business ventures to develop ideas for a public health start-up with real impact. In his sleep epidemiology course, he pitched an idea to address student exhaustion through on-campus sleep pods.
But Soma also used his MPH coursework to chase another passion: research. A course on meta-analysis, for example, shaped the way that he thinks critically about evidence and fundamentally changed his research approach. This, in turn, informed his thesis research on infectious disease patterns in Brazil after a dam collapsed in 2019.
Facing a bright future
Soma’s lessons learned through classes, projects and work experiences as a Rollins student enabled him to pursue his research and entrepreneurial passions, culminating in a position at Mayo Clinic, which he will start after graduation. He will work as a research assistant in a gastroenterology lab studying pancreatitis, an illness that has long ailed his older brother and fascinated Soma himself.
He hopes to eventually use the knowledge he gains in this role to create a new way to detect and treat pancreatitis early.
Soma also plans to pursue a medical residency so he can work as a physician in the U.S. — never forgetting the perspective he gained during his time at Emory.
“I carry the spirit of a physician, the creative approach of an innovator and the precision of an artist with a public health perspective,” says Soma. “When you put things together, that’s where there’s impact.”