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Lorina Naci

Biography

Lorina Naci, 25, had to smuggle her application for the University of Georgia out of her native Albania with the help of American friends because her country was in turmoil, its borders were closed, and its international mail system immobilized. Georgia admitted her, and she earned a 3.92 GPA and degrees in fine arts, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. At the same time, Ms. Naci was named co-instructor of a course in psychology. She also recorded books for the blind and dyslexic, led the European Student Association, and represented international students at the university. She intends to continue her research in the doctoral program in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

"Despite my upbringing in a society of isolation and abrupt transformations, or rather because of it," writes Lorina Naci, "I believe that most often positive changes come gradually, through the work of experts with a global perspective and local insight." Lorina has lived this philosophy, leaving Albania while the country was in turmoil to study at the University of Georgia, and now entering the University of Cambridge to earn the Ph.D. that will enable her to teach, conduct research, and serve one day as an international expert who helps her home country. "I value education as a powerful means of personal growth and of tangible progress in society," she adds, "[and] wish to contribute to the advancement of science in my country, and to the creation of new opportunities for professional and academic advancement."

Ms. Naci's area of expert interest is cognitive neuroscience, particularly how meaning is processed in a healthy brain and how brain and neural malfunction arises in people suffering from language impairments. Establishing the basis for this research in her undergraduate work, she set herself on an ambitious and successful course of study. In four years at UGA, she earned degrees in fine arts, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence, compiling a 3.92 GPA and earning numerous academic honors, including election into Phi Beta Kappa and awards from the US Academy of Achievement and the Soros Foundation Albania. One faculty member called Lorina "a remarkable student in her capacity for interdisciplinary thinking and her ability to move from highly sophisticated conceptual ideas to the practical applications."

But Lorina's success extended beyond science. While earning one of her degrees - her bachelor's in fine arts - she fashioned multiple sheets of serial images from personal photographs of life in Albania into an installation (entitled "Each Morning I Wake Up with One Word in Mind: Plastik") that won the finalist prize in the Golden Key International Honor Society International Art Competition. Her passion for science and art, however, will not interfere with her wider obligations, Lorina says. "The fortuitous circumstances of my arrival in the United States, and the unbounded generosity of the people who welcomed me here, have instilled in me a desire to give back to the community," she writes. And it is no surprise that she intends to do so in multiple ways, as a teacher, artist, scientist, and leader.

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