Spotlight on Shivani Srivastava Shivani Srivastava, Immunologist Dr. Shivani Srivastava grew up in an academic family. She remembers spirited debates between her grandfather, uncles, and father — a mix of math professors and engineers by training. “Something would be bothering them, a question would keep them up at night and chew at them. [I remember them] discussing it and arguing about it at the dining table,” she said. “And then when they figured something out together, they’d be so satisfied.” Srivastava had always been interested in human disease, but didn’t expect to forge a career trying to overcome it. Initially, like her father and grandfather, she was more attracted to math and chemistry than biology.