#SoCaltech: Sidd Ojha
"When it came time to make a decision about coming to Caltech, and I had the opportunity to visit some schools, somehow Caltech was just the most out there. It was so radically different, very small and collaborative. Also, being able to swim while here didn't hurt.
“I've been swimming since I was in elementary school. It's been very much a constant in my life. What I really love about it is that it's very cut and dry. Some people hate this, but it's always just you and the clock, and there's a consistent benchmark. You're competing with your teammates, and you're pushing each other, but you're ultimately competing with a clock, and there's something very meditative about that. It frees up your mind, and you really have to focus on what you're doing. It's this great break from all the demands of the rest of my day.
“Being on the swim team has given me a tremendous community of people who are driven in and out of the pool, whether it's working on problem sets during team study sessions, being TA’ed by older members on the team and then getting to serve as a TA for younger members of the team, and publishing papers with teammates. My favorite memories from the past four years on the team are the swimming conference championships and all the energy and the excitement we had there. Everyone had been working so hard the whole season leading up to this single meet. It's three and a half days fully away from campus and everyone's just screaming and supporting. It's incredible."
Sidd Ojha is a 2026 graduate who double-majored in applied and computational math and economics and also won the 2026 David M. Grether Prize in Social Science, which honors outstanding performance and creativity by a Caltech undergraduate. He came to Caltech undecided with an interest in physics, but after attending Colin Camerer's 2022 Watson Lecture, "The Brain Hates Losing (and Other News from Neuroeconomics)," he decided to explore behavioral economics. After his first year, Ojha did a research project with Camerer and has worked with him throughout his undergraduate experience. Upon graduating, Ojha will join OneChronos, a startup companyat the intersection of mechanism design and capital markets founded by Caltech alum Kelly Littlepage (BS '09).
#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.