As the director of the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory at MIT, Lydia Bourouiba combines multiple disciplines to analyze pathogen transmission in humans, animals, and plants. Mechanical, physical, and biological experimentation combined with mechanistic physical and physiological modeling is the path to not only understanding pandemics, but improving preparedness for such debilitating agents. In a world where there is an ever increasing threat of infectious diseases, analyzing how they transfer through fluids is critical for future prevention. What does this look like? An example of such work is Lydia’s research on the fluid dynamics of sneezing, using slow motion footage, measurements, and mathematical modeling to better understand the role that sneezes play in the spread of infections. In addition to her MIT professorship, Lydia is an affiliate member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School and received many awards, including the Tse Cheuk Ng Tai’s Prize for Innovative Research in Health Sciences and the 2018 Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award for high-risk/high-reward basic science research.