By any measure, Aradhna Tripati is a brilliant scientist. She began college full-time at the age of 12, has been on the faculty at UCLA since 2009, and received tenure in 2014. Her lab focuses on the role of the carbon cycle in a changing climate and climate change impacts, and she and the group have published prolifically.

In the last several years, she has turned her attention to creating more opportunities for students like her – those that faced similar barriers. Tripati's upbringing is indeed one unusual for her field. She says, “My parents are from Fiji with Indian ancestry. They immigrated and dealt with racism, incarceration, and homelessness in...