Eva Erickson
DOCTORAL STUDENT AT BROWN UNIVERSITY
BROWN UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL STUDENT EVA ERICKSON, a standout contestant from CBS’s Survivor Season 48, didn’t just bring fierce competition to the island—she brought her engineering mindset too. Whether optimizing a shooting challenge by calculating the best trajectory or thinking about surface friction, she admitted, “I was often trying to game the system by thinking about physics.”
Erickson credits her Georgia Tech engineering teammates for introducing her to the show. “They got me into watching it—we would play our own version of it,” she said. Later, encouraged by her boyfriend’s Survivor-obsessed family, she submitted a single-take application video that landed her on the show.
But the reality show became more than just a personal adventure for Erickson—it became a national platform for something deeply personal: her autism advocacy. Erickson reflected on a moment in episode five when she became overwhelmed on the island. “[My castmates] showed me so much care and that they wanted to learn. I felt so lucky to be surrounded by such great people. In the general population, it’s not always that way.”
Erickson hopes that by seeing what happened to her on television, people can become more aware of what neurodivergent individuals go through. “I went out there because I wanted to play Survivor, but you bring your life into the game and that is what I deal with in my life,” she said. “I’ve been very, very proud to share my story and know how much it will help others.”
Listen to Sarah Alburakeh’s interview with Eva Erickson.
“My dad would always say, you can’t always control your skill level or how good you are at something, but you can always control how hard you work and the attitude you bring.”
—Eva Erickson
Eva Erickson’s P.I. jokingly asked her to mention a vortex while on Survivor, and she actually tried. “I was on the alert for vortices, like—‘Oh, look at that lovely von Kármán vortex street over there.’” she said. “Unfortunately, I did not see anything that jumped out in that way. But I was out there definitely thinking of fluids.”
Beyond the positive response from viewers and her castmates, Erickson shared how engineers who are also on the spectrum have reached out to her. “I’m very excited to hear their stories—it can be very hard trying to fit into the box of what a normal brain does when you’re working. Knowing that there are a lot of people who have found success as engineers while having this neurodivergent thinking style is so great. And so I’m so excited to represent that community.”
Prior to her time in the reality TV spotlight, Erickson’s journey into engineering began with a love for animals. The spark came when her uncle showed her a sea kayak with a fin system inspired by penguins. “When I found out that somebody had studied an animal to make this very cool engineering application I was like, that is what I want to do.”
That passion led her to Georgia Tech, where she studied bio-inspired robotics, and later to Brown University for a Ph.D. focused on fluid and thermal sciences. At Brown’s Breuer Lab, Erickson is currently working on a project studying how seals use their whiskers to sense their surroundings underwater, and how that can be implemented in sensory tech for the Navy.
Considering her many impressive endeavors, it is no surprise to hear that time management has been one of Erickson’s greatest challenges—and successes. Outside of research and Survivor, she’s also the captain of the men’s club hockey team at Brown and an NCAA hockey official.
“When I first brought this stuff to [my advisor] that I’m going to be traveling for reffing, that I’m going to be on Survivor, he said, ‘I have no worries about you getting your work done... I know that you will not let yourself fall behind.’”
Erickson is forging a path that challenges assumptions—about who can lead, who belongs in science, and what it means to show up fully as yourself. From the beaches of Survivor to the labs of Brown, her advice has been that “you’re here for a reason; do not let your imposter syndrome stop you from succeeding.”
© 2025 The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.