David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

really, really into bugs. And sharks. So
for a while I thought I was going to be a
veterinarian or an ichthyologist. Eugenie
Clark was my hero. She was the first
woman diver. She grew up in New York
City in a family of immigrants and ended
up rising to the top of her field, despite
having a lot of ‘Oh, you’re a woman, you
can’t go under the ocean’ setbacks. I just
thought she was great. My dad met her
and was able to give me a signed photo
and I was really excited. Science was
always a really big part of what I did.”
Sacks sailed through high school at
the top of her class. She took a political
science course at a nearby college while
she was still in high school, as well as a
multivariant calculus course at the local