"Not only does Nina Tandon grow living hearts, she makes it sound easy." That's what Katie Couric and Dove, partners in the Women Who Should Be Famous Initiative, wrote about the TED Fellow and Tissue Engineer; and it is one of the reasons they nominated her to be featured in the campaign. It is also her relentless pursuit of scientific discovery and her dedication to showing others that women can be successful in the sciences that earned Tandon the designation. The campaign features a list of "female role models doing positive, impactful work in their communities," who are inspirational representatives of "true beauty." Tandon, who is researching new ways of caring for artificially grown cells—to eventually grow replacement bones and hearts—certainly fits that criteria.

Tandon also recently appeared on Katie Couric's talk show, Katie, to discuss her research. “I like to say it’s a lot like a mix between gardening and cooking because you need the right ingredients and then you need to follow the recipe," Tandon explains of how she approaches her groundbreaking work. Not only is Tandon extraordinarily passionate about science, she inspires other people—especially women—to get excited about it as well. She says that science is fascinating, cool, and has the potential to change the world—something that both sexes should feel excited about.

Named as one of Fast Company's 100 most creative people in business, Tandon is a biomedical engineer at Columbia University's Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering. She is also an adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union, where she teaches a "Bioelectricity" class. In her eye-opening talks, she presents a fascinating look at the future of medicine and biotechnology. She chronicles the history of medical innovation and uses the work she is doing, and the advancements she hopes to make, as examples of what science will look like in the future.