Aarti Raja earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Maryland in 2000, completed her postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School and joined the faculty at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in 2012.  She holds the rank of Professor in the department of biology.  Her areas of research include microbiology, and innovations in science education.  Aarti has over 12 years of research in the field of virology, specifically human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its proteins. Aarti collaborates with researchers from across the globe via the project called the Tiny Earth (TE: https://tinyearth.wisc.edu/), a program that allows undergraduate students to engage in research early in their careers laying the groundwork for scientific discovery. Aarti is also part of a program started at NSU called Science Alive which connects the college community with local schools to bring hands-on science education and learning opportunities to school age children. In addition to research and teaching, Aarti gained vast experience in the field of infectious diseases consulting for the pharmaceutical and financial industries.