Dr. Meenal Datta is the Jane DeFlorio Collegiate Professor and associate professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, where she directs the Tumor Immune Microenvironment & Mechanics (TIME) Lab. Her research focuses on the physics of cancer. She examines how the mechanical forces generated as solid tumors grow can influence disease progression, treatment resistance, and the ability of immune cells to fight cancer. Her lab studies how these forces and larger physical forces, like gravity, affect both cancer and immune cells within and around tumors. Outside of science, Meenal enjoys taking walks around the beautiful campuses near Notre Dame while listening to podcasts and audiobooks. A recreational rower since high school, she also rows a few times a week with the South Bend Community Rowing Club. Meenal also enjoys reading, cooking, and unwinding with sci-fi or true crime. She received her BS in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her PhD in chemical and biological engineering from Tufts University. She completed her predoctoral and postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital under Dr. Rakesh K. Jain, before joining the faculty at Notre Dame in fall 2021. She has been recognized with numerous honors and awards including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Biomedical Engineering Society's Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award, the Air Force Young Investigator Program Award, the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator Award, a Rising Star award from the American Society for Mechanical Engineers and a Maximizing Investigators' Research Award for early stage investigators from the National Institutes of Health. In this interview, she shares more about her life, career, and research.