Arjun Nageswaran Jeopardy Profile: Age, Job, Family, Stats
Find out all the Jeopardy! results for Arjun Nageswaran, including games played, scores and competitors.
Arjun Nageswaran Jeopardy Contestant Profile
Arjun Nageswaran is an American PhD student, computational biologist and bioinformatics researcher originally from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, appearing on Jeopardy! Season 43 as a PhD student. His academic work combines computer science, genomics, bioinformatics, statistics and medicine, with a particular emphasis on using computational techniques to study human disease.
Nageswaran is pursuing his PhD at Stanford University, where he is part of the university’s Biomedical Data Science graduate program. His research focuses on developing and applying computational approaches to biological and medical data, particularly large-scale genomic datasets.
At Stanford, Nageswaran has been associated with research examining human genetics and complex disease. His work uses computational and statistical methods to understand how genetic variation contributes to differences in human health. This places his research within the rapidly developing field of computational genomics, where researchers analyze enormous biological datasets rather than relying exclusively on traditional laboratory experimentation.
His path into computational biology developed from an unusually broad undergraduate education. Nageswaran attended Cornell University, where he studied Computer Science and Biological Sciences, developing expertise in both programming and biology. This interdisciplinary training provided a natural foundation for graduate research combining algorithms, statistics, genetics and medicine.
While at Cornell, Nageswaran was deeply involved in competitive trivia and quiz bowl. He competed with Cornell Quiz Bowl, participating in collegiate tournaments against teams from universities around the country. His competitive trivia experience predates his Jeopardy! appearance by several years and gave him experience with the rapid recall, broad subject knowledge and buzzer-based competition that translate particularly well to the television game.
Nageswaran also demonstrated an interest in computational research as an undergraduate. His work included projects applying computer-science methods to biological questions, helping establish the interdisciplinary direction he later pursued at Stanford.
His academic interests span areas including bioinformatics, machine learning, statistical genetics, genomics and biomedical data science. Rather than treating computer science and biology as separate disciplines, his graduate work uses computation as a tool for investigating biological mechanisms and understanding disease.
Growing up in Buffalo Grove, a suburb northwest of Chicago, Nageswaran attended Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Stevenson has a strong academic and scholastic-competition tradition, and Nageswaran participated extensively in academic competitions during his school years.
He was particularly active in Scholastic Bowl, Illinois’s high-school quiz-bowl competition. Nageswaran became one of Stevenson’s prominent trivia competitors, participating in state-level competition before continuing with quiz bowl after entering Cornell.
His progression from high-school Scholastic Bowl to collegiate Quiz Bowl and eventually Jeopardy! represents a long-running involvement with competitive trivia alongside his scientific career. His background gives him strengths across both STEM subjects and the broad humanities/general-knowledge material encountered in quiz competitions.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Arjun Nageswaran |
| Location & Residence | Originally from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, United States. His graduate studies are based at Stanford University in Stanford, California. Grew up in the northwestern Chicago suburbs and attended high school in Lincolnshire, Illinois. |
| Profession & Jobs | PhD student, computational biologist and bioinformatics researcher. Graduate researcher in Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University. His work involves computational genomics, human genetics, bioinformatics, statistical analysis and biomedical data science, using computational approaches to analyze biological and genomic datasets and investigate human health and disease. |
| Gender & Sex | Male / man. |
| Age & Date of Birth | |
| Nationality & Ethnicity | American; Indian/South Asian heritage. |
| Education & School | Stanford University – PhD studies in Biomedical Data Science. Cornell University – undergraduate studies in Computer Science and Biological Sciences. Adlai E. Stevenson High School – Lincolnshire, Illinois. His education has consistently combined strong quantitative/computational training with biological science. |
| Relationships (Married/Dating/Sexuality) & Family | |
| Biography & More Details | 2026 Jeopardy! contestant, introduced as a PhD Student originally from Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Nageswaran grew up in the Chicago suburbs and attended Adlai E. Stevenson High School, where he became involved in Scholastic Bowl and academic competition. He subsequently attended Cornell University, combining computer science and biological sciences while also competing in collegiate Quiz Bowl. He continued into graduate study at Stanford University, pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Data Science and applying computational and statistical techniques to genomics, genetics and medical research. His research interests encompass bioinformatics, computational biology, human genetics, statistical genetics and data-driven approaches to understanding disease. Competitive trivia has consequently been a longstanding pursuit rather than something he took up specifically for television, progressing from high-school Scholastic Bowl to Cornell Quiz Bowl and eventually Jeopardy!. |
Contestant Image Credit: Jeopardy Official Website
Arjun Nageswaran Jeopardy Results
| Friday, 2 October 2026 | Rian Robertson Ottawa, Ontario Software Developer 1 Day Winnings of $16,100 Winning Score: $9,801 Round 2 Score: $9,000 Round 1 Score: $1,000 | Arjun Nageswaran Originally Buffalo Grove, Illinois PhD Student Final Score: $0 Round 2 Score: $9,800 Round 1 Score: $3,200 | Adam Bundy Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Advertising Partnerships Manager Final Score: $3,400 Round 2 Score: $11,700 Round 1 Score: $5,800 |