LA JOLLA, Calif. – From earning a PhD at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, to presenting at a renowned sports analytics conference, to studying the human genome, Rachel Marty Pyke has a lengthy list of high-level achievements to her name. With all her experiences, the most challenging thing that Marty Pyke says she has done might come as a surprise: being a student-athlete.
 
"It seems silly because afterwards I went on to get a PhD and people talk about how challenging that is," Marty Pyke explained. "That was challenging, but not compared to the level of structure needed to finish all of my work and still get enough sleep to get up and practice well the next day without sacrificing my mind or my body. Keeping those two in balance was really challenging and it taught me the skills I needed to be highly disciplined."
 
Marty Pyke was a guard on the UC San Diego basketball team from 2010-14 and she helped the Tritons to their first-ever California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Tournament title in 2013. Her experiences as an undergraduate at UC San Diego helped put her on a journey to where she is today.
 
"I originally came into UC San Diego as an undergrad wanting to study biology and be a doctor, but I quickly found out that I was squeamish and that was not a good fit," Marty Pyke recalled with a laugh. "Then I was introduced to computer science, where I found out I could study the human body and medicine in a different way that could help many patients."
 
During her time at UC San Diego, Marty Pyke developed close relationships with her professors. Although she never envisioned herself getting her PhD, the opportunity opened up to her thanks to those relationships.
 
"UC San Diego is well-regarded and well-known for its research in both computer science and biology," Marty Pyke said. "Getting a PhD at the intersection of those two at UC San Diego seemed like an incredible opportunity and I didn't want to pass it up."
 
Marty Pyke excelled in her PhD program. She was selected as a 2019 Siebel Scholar, receiving a monetary award for her final year of study due to her outstanding academic performance and leadership.
 
Marty Pyke was also honored with the Chancellor's Dissertation Medal for her dissertation, "The Role of MHC Variation in Tumor Progression." The medal is awarded to PhD students who have completed top-quality research.
 
"To receive that medal was a huge honor, and it was really special to hear from all the folks from throughout my nine years at UC San Diego who reached out to congratulate me," said Marty Pyke. "It really reminded me how much of a great journey it was and how many people played a role in shaping that experience. It wouldn't have been the same without all those individuals encouraging me, teaching me, and leading me through that time."
 
Although Marty Pyke completed her basketball career during her undergraduate period, the sport continued to play a role in her life during her PhD studies. The experience traces back to her childhood, when her parents started Noah Basketball.  
 
"When I was growing up, my parents founded a basketball company," Marty Pyke recalled. "It was a shooting tool and I helped them by doing shooting clinics with them, so I grew up with the company.
 
"Around the time I started my PhD in a data science-type degree, Noah Basketball started producing a lot of data, so it was a really cool symbiotic relationship where I had just gotten the skill set I needed to analyze that kind of data. I had the opportunity to dive into data and explore it, and that led to a couple research papers, mainly exploring what makes a great shot a great shot and what makes a great shooter a great shooter."
 
Marty Pyke's research with Noah Basketball opened doors for her to share her findings. In addition to interviews with major publications, she attended a renowned sports analytics conference.
 
"One of the coolest opportunities I had after Noah Basketball was to present at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference," Marty Pyke shared. "The first year I went there, I got to present a poster with some of my research, and my second year I got to go back and give a research talk, and then my third year I got to speak on a panel with some of the giants in the sports analytics field which was a super cool experience. I was awestruck."
 
Now, Marty Pyke spends the majority of her time working with the human genome as a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at Personalis, Inc. She strives to understand how variations in the human immune system impact how cancers progress.
 
Although Marty Pyke no longer spends most of her time playing basketball, she believes her basketball career impacts who she is today.
 
"Some of the skills I learned through basketball I see coming out so clearly [in the workplace]," Marty Pyke said. "I learned perseverance, hard work, organization, and how to lead and how to follow on a team. All of those things are critical to functioning at a high level in the workplace as well. The skills I learned through basketball are invaluable and were things I couldn't have learned in the classroom."
 
In addition to being grateful for the skills that she learned, Marty Pyke is thankful for the lifelong friendships she formed during her time on the Triton women's basketball team.
 
"My teammates are some of my best friends and you make so many memories together, whether that's the wins or the losses, or traveling together, and especially the challenging conditioning workouts. You get bonded in a way that's hard to replicate in any other circumstance," Marty Pyke explained. "Being able to carry those relationships forward is one of the most special things about my basketball career."
 
When Marty Pyke thinks back on her time as a student-athlete, she recalls the challenges of balancing the workload, but ultimately feels that she would not change a thing.
 
"It's all worth it, even though it's really hard sometimes," Marty Pyke reflected. "Life isn't that way forever, it's a season. It's a season that's a lot of hard work and incredible joy that comes from putting in all that hard work."
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
With 30 national team championships, nearly 150 individual titles and the top student-athlete graduation rate among Division II institutions in the United States, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program annually ranks as one of the most successful in the country.  The Tritons sponsor 23 intercollegiate sport programs that compete on the NCAA Division I and II levels and, in summer 2020, will transition into full Division I status as a member of the Big West Conference.  UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent.  A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.  In competition, more than 1,300 UC San Diego student-athletes have earned All-America honors.

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