What if you were born deaf? What if your child was? J. Tilak Ratnanather on Mentoring

J. Tilak Ratnanather, D.Phil. is an associate research professor at Johns Hopkins University specializing in brain imaging. In 2015, Dr. Ratnanather was invited to the White House to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Tilak has mentored more than a dozen students, particularly in biomedical engineering, who are deaf or hard of hearing and use listening and spoken language. Born deaf in Sri Lanka, Tilak emigrated with his family to the UK and later acquired hearing technology and learned to speak. He received a scholarship from AG Bell and was invited to conduct research at Johns Hopkins, which has provided him the opportunity to work with students who are deaf. Tilak has long chaired the AG Bell College Scholarship Committee, which includes several members who are adults with hearing loss working in academia, and seeks ways to help students interested in the sciences find support to advance their research studies.