Formulary Book Club: Think Again

Alita Miller, PhD candidate and Royster Fellow, has our June ’25 book recommendation

Story and photo by Ryan McDaniel | Published July 1, 2025

The Formulary Book Club series introduces a student, staff, faculty, or alum of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and gets their recommendation for a great read.

This month’s recommendation comes to us from Alita Miller, a rising third-year PhD candidate in the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics (DPMP). Alita’s Formulary Book Club recommendation is Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant.

Through engaging stories, real-world examples, and research, Adam Grant analyzes the notion that intelligence is the ability to think and learn and postulates that, perhaps even moreso, it is the ability to re-think and re-learn. The book challenges readers to embrace mental flexibility, question their assumptions, and see disagreement as an opportunity to learn and grow. In short, it encourages readers to think like a scientist.

“The message that resonated most with me was the idea of confident humility, or being secure in our ability to learn while recognizing our limits,” says Alita. “Overconfidence can blind us, while curiosity and self-awareness can lead to deeper learning.”

Alita was given the book as a gift from one of her mentors early in her career. She credits them with kicking off her personal growth journey. As she puts it, “Through this book I found a passion for reading to learn and I’ve been reading self-help books ever since!”

​Alita is doing her PhD research in the Juliane Nguyen Lab where she engineers yeast to enhance its probiotic properties with the aim of creating patient-friendly treatment options for gastrointestinal diseases. In 2023, Alita received the prestigious Royster Fellowship, a fellowship designed to enrich students’ academic journey and professional development both during their time at UNC and beyond. The interdisciplinary fellowship connects her with other Royster Fellows who may or may not have science backgrounds. This has helped Alita build communication skills to talk about her research with those in vastly different fields.

Prior to coming to the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Alita received her BS/MS in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue and spent three years working at Merck as a Formulation Scientist. During her time working in industry, she developed a habit of reading and watching YouTube to continue learning and growing. Now that she’s back in school, her reading focuses on entrepreneurship and business, as she aspires to work in a microbiome biotech company someday.

Outside the lab, Alita enjoys playing the drums, spending time outside, and engaging in community outreach to inspire underrepresented youth to pursue careers in science.

Thank you, Alita, for the book recommendation!