I studied under Margrit as a masters student from 2021-2023. I initially started as a project volunteer in 2021 in one of her research works with Dr. Michael hesselmo. Then eventually beginning of 2022, I started as a research assistant with her in her research on usage of ML in predicting the severity of the condition called Aphasia. I was able to make two publications under her, one abstract at the conference of Medical Imaging and Understanding Analysis and another at A CVPR workshop called “CVAMD”. We had a lot of ups and downs in our collaboration together but she was nothing but kind and Understanding towards me.

There are few profound moments in my life with her. In my summer of 2022, I just made my first publications, an abstract. She was really happy with me given this is a significant milestone in my career. I was a struggling masters student at the time finding it hard to pay my rent and health insurance. After my publications, she immediately called me and asked about my goals, dreams and the kind of career I wanted. She understood my struggles and provided a research assistantship for the summer supported by Dr Swathi Kiran at the center for brain recovery in Sargent College.

She explained to me in detail how she was when she was pursuing her masters and how profound research is for her, and how I need to conduct myself if I were to pursue the similar career path. And then she provided me a thought out plan on how I can overcome my financial struggles and offered me a PhD position with her. There are no words which I can use to explain how this all felt for me, or the regret that I have that I have not taken up on her offer, being the naive shortsighted masters student that I was. I instead mentioned her I would like to finish my masters with a thesis.

Even when I was publishing my first full research paper, she spent the whole night with me on a Zoom call editing my paper and making revisions so the paper is as close to perfection as it can be. No professor would go to such extent in guiding a naive masters student, sacrificing their time at midnight and also during daytime, and sometimes weekends. She really cared about me and I would forever cherish these memories.

She is my moral compass in the kind of research work I would like to do and how I want to live my life. I will forever remember all her scoldings, guidance and appreciation throughout my life and hopefully carry with me the short legacy she left with me.