Olga Boudker completed her undergraduate studies at Novosibirsk State University in the Russian Federation. She then received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  During her Ph.D., Boudker focused on the thermodynamics of protein folding and conformational changes, working under the guidance of Ernesto Freire. After a brief postdoctoral period at MIT, she joined the lab of Eric Gouaux at Columbia University, where she started working on the structure and mechanism of glutamate transporters. In 2005, Boudker launched an independent research program at Weill Cornell Medicine, focusing on the structure, mechanism, evolution, and modulation of membrane ion-driven transporters. She rose through the ranks and is now a Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Among other awards, she received the Michael and Kate Barany Young Investigator from the Biophysical Society, the Cole Award from the Membrane Biophysics Subgroup, and the Javitz Neuroscience Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She became an HHMI Investigator in 2015 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.