Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Rajiv Iyengar B'09 - Once a Lion, Always a Lion

He headed to New Haven, Connecticut, where he completed his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Yale University.

 

He then went to Nashville, Tennessee, and attended Vanderbilt University where he earned a fellowship there in Hand/Upper Extremity and Microvascular Surgery. 

 

And, after all these universities and cities, Iyengar has now returned home to the Pacific Northwest to open his own practice in Puyallup, Washington… in his early 30s. 

 

In August of 2024, Iyengar returned to his first significant educational arena, Bellarmine Prep, and its classrooms where Iyengar said, “the place where magic happens.” Iyengar is so proud of Bellarmine that he includes his time here along with his other institutions of learning on his website. 

 

During his summer visit, Iyengar brought someone very important to him, his wife of a little over a year, Dr. Sneha Krishnan, a veterinarian. Iyengar wanted to show Krishnan the place where he claimed he was “a nerd.”

Teachers quickly dispelled that rumor, although they did note that his younger sister Veena, B’13, was a bit cooler. Iyengar was, not surprisingly, involved in Marine Chemistry and was also a 2009 valedictorian. But he was also on the tennis team, participated in retreats, and served as an editor-in-chief for the Lion journalism program. 

 

His Marine Chemistry teacher, Dave DeGroot, remembers Iyengar fondly. DeGroot explains, “Rajiv was the Marine Chem student who almost got away. Students are invited to apply for the program, and we missed sending an invite to Rajiv during his freshman & sophomore years. So, Rajiv went out, found a mentor and a project during his rising junior summer year, collected, and analyzed his data, drafted an extensive research paper and presented his findings to [former Marine Chemistry teacher] Ron Nilsen and me.  He did on his own what we teach our students in their junior and senior year.  Needless to say, ‘we let him in the program.’  Rajiv went on to qualify for several national and international science fairs during his junior year. Rajiv’s biggest accomplishment, however, was swimming with sharks on the Marine Chem Hawaii trip.”

 

After determining that Iyengar indeed was not a nerd in high school, it became apparent that he was a little bit of one now compared to his micro-influencer wife. Krishan’s TikTok about exotic animals and her Instagram, @beatsbydr.sne , may have inspired Iyengar to beef up his own professional social media presence on Instagram @raj.iyengarmd. He just needs a compelling tagline like Krishnan’s “From dogs to frogs, I see them all.” With Iyengar’s impressive educational journey, perhaps it could list his school’s mascots, “Lions, Bears, Bulldogs, and Commodores, too.” 

 

Whatever Iyengar decides for his catchy mantra, he can always use the appropriate hashtag, #Oncealionalwaysalion