Biology | Biophysics

BIOLOGY LEONARDO SILENZI

Katie Fox/ Old Gold & Black

CHRISTA DUTTON

News Editor

Leonardo Silenzi loves complexity.

In his experience, Silenzi has found the human brain to be the most complex structure on Earth, so he has decided to spend his time studying that.

“I love to stare at complexity,” Silenzi said. “Sometimes it’s frustrating, but it’s fascinating to me. I’ve always been interested in understanding human nature.”

Silenzi is passionate about philosophy, psychoanalysis, neuroscience and the intersectionality between all three — and that is how he decided to major in Biology with minors in computer science, neuroscience and chemistry.

He moved to the United States and attended Wake Forest to apply the knowledge he was gaining in these topics. In Italy — where Silenzi grew up — he described his schooling as “instruction, but not education.” He never touched a laptop in high school and had not ever set foot in a lab. At Wake Forest, he has received many opportunities to participate in research and form relationships with professors.

Relationships with professors have been Silenzi’s favorite part of his Wake Forest experience because of the passions and interests he has developed through conversations with them.

“I had mentors and people that were able to spark that passion in me,” Silenzi said.

One of the professors that have had a particularly strong impact on Silenzi’s time at Wake Forest is Professor of Biology Dr. Wayne Silver. Silenzi took Silver’s sensory biology class and worked in his research lab for four semesters. Silver described Silenzi as one of his best students.

“I can’t say enough about Leo,” Silver said. “To me, he is what all Wake Forest students should aspire to be. I have been teaching at Wake Forest for 37 years. I have had hundreds of undergraduate students work in my research lab over that time. I would rate Leo in the top five students to ever work in my lab.”

He continued: “He is easily the equal — and better — of most of the graduate students I have mentored. He is tenacious when it comes to pursuing a problem. He is not afraid to try new things or ask for help when he hits a wall.”

Silenzi’s intellect and work ethic is evident through the way he speaks of his interests. Silenzi loves to think deeply, saying “it’s a good way to spend life.”

What motivates Silenzi to think deeply and be dedicated to his studies is not the excellent grades, the career possibilities or the money, but rather pure, unadulterated passion.

“Freshmen and sophomores have asked me ‘how do I find what I want to do?’ I tell them that it didn’t appear to me — I had to look for it,” Silenzi said. “What matters at the end of the day is having a passion.”

After graduation, Silenzi will be attending Harvard University to earn his Ph.D. in neuroscience. He is excited to do research but is also looking forward to spending time around like-minded people who are just as passionate about science and intellect as he is.

He described a night while on a visit to Harvard where he met his Ph.D. cohort. He and his cohort stayed up until 2 a.m. discussing science, philosophy and other intellectual matters. Silenzi left that weekend confident that this is exactly where he wanted to be surrounded by exactly the type of people he wanted to be around.

“There was no superficiality,” said Silenzi. “It was amazing.”

When asked what he still has left to learn in his field in his post-graduation studies, Silenzi humbly responded: “Everything.”

BIOPHYSICS RICH POPE

JOSIE SCRATCHARD Life Editor

Rich Pope came to Wake Forest as a curious student looking to find his niche in academics. Coming into college, he thought he was content with biology but found himself venturing into broader sciences. With his mind open, he explored organic chemistry and physics, which opened a whole new door for him academically as he found a new love for physics. He found himself with a choice between the biochemistry and biophysics majors. He chose the latter.

“I found that the two majors were really similar,” Pope said. “But the biochemistry major lacked that physics background that I was also interested in, so I decided based on that.”

Not only did Pope discover a new love in physics, but he also unlocked a new talent. Dr. Martin Guthold, professor of Pope’s first-year General Physics I (PHY 113) class and senior year Biophysical Methods Lab (PHY 325) class, saw this talent immediately.

“I’ve been teaching at Wake Forest since 2001, often in larger classes with 30-50 students, likely instructing about 2,000 students,” Guthold said. “The quality of Rich’s work was at the highest level, with nearly perfect scores in all assignments and exams. It is something I only see every few years in these demanding classes; Rich is among the top five students I’ve had in all my classes.”

Guthold’s mentorship was instrumental in Pope’s decision to become a biophysics major, as he pushed Pope to continue work in the subject. With Pope’s academic prowess came opportunities to explore more in the field of biophysics. Pope partook in seven semesters of research with Guthold, investigating the effect that low-density lipoprotein, or “bad cholesterol”, has on the main structure of blood clots.

“Rich’s research provided strong evidence of a novel role that bad cholesterol has in blood clotting. It is a breakthrough discovery,” Guthold said.

This research experience was paramount to Pope gaining exposure to the biophysics field and was a large contributor to his newfound interest.

While Pope has been involved in groundbreaking research, he has also taken part in other on- and off-campus activities. He was the president of his fraternity, Sigma Pi, for a year and enjoys taking part in outdoor activities like hiking, camping and kayaking. Pope also balances biophysics with his second major in economics. In fact, economics is the path on which Pope sees himself after graduating from Wake Forest. He has gained extracurricular experience in economics through his participation in the Wake Forest Federal Reserve Challenge Team and will be continuing his pursuit of the discipline with a job as an investment banking analyst for William Blair in Charlotte.

Though biophysics will only be supplementary to his future career, Pope has a profound appreciation for the discipline. Pope’s interest in biophysics stems from his willingness to learn more about the scientific basis for life.

“It gives a really deep understanding of every biological phenomenon,” Pope said. “Working from using physics as a base, I think it’s really interesting to see how all different types of interactions can describe things through biological phenomena.”

Guthold believes that Pope has every asset to excel beyond Wake Forest.

“It has been such a pleasure working with Rich, he was an outstanding student in class and in research, he is so quick in grasping even very hard concepts,” Guthold said. “He is humble and very dedicated to his work and helping others.”