Shristi Sharma, a cybersecurity specialist, discusses how her remarkable life has been shaped by her family of TM practitioners, her practice of the Maharishi Word of Wisdom^SM program from age four and the TM technique from age ten, and her education at Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa.

She was the 2021 Maharishi School valedictorian and also earned the school’s Pioneer Award. As a Robertson Scholar, she received a full merit scholarship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. In 2022, while she was still in college, she received the Shyamala Gopalan Harris Award for Civil Rights from the Indian American Impact Foundation.

Shristi Sharma’s passion for computer science began in fourth grade, when she and her father discovered a college-level Python class. Thrilled by the ability to create computer graphics, she dove deeply into coding, setting the foundation for her future work in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity.

Shristi Sharma, a cybersecurity specialist, discusses how her remarkable life has been shaped by her family of TM practitioners.

At Maharishi School, she became a two-time International Science and Engineering Fair finalist and a three-time Iowa State Science Fair champion for her innovative research projects, which ranged from predicting potential school shooters on Twitter to detecting early-onset Alzheimer’s using smartwatch data. She also received the Prudential Spirit of Community Award and the US President’s Volunteer Service Award for teaching computer science to girls from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Ms. Sharma earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science, with double minors in psychology and neuroscience. She published multiple papers on satellite cybersecurity through Cornell University’s Aerospace Adversary Lab and spent a summer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on cybersecurity for space missions. As president of Duke Cyber, she expanded the club from four to more than 60 members, led the team to four national championships in cybersecurity and national security policy, and organized briefings with government officials and NATO leaders on emerging technologies.

Following graduation, Ms. Sharma joined Trellix, a global company that specializes in cybersecurity. As an AI strategist in the Emerging Leaders Program, she helps design and implement AI initiatives across multiple cybersecurity product teams.

Christine Albers, host of TM Talks, interviewed Shristi Sharma. This interview was aired on December 7, 2025.