Shyam Akula worked with our lab in 2015-2016 as an undergraduate researcher in several areas of work. He then went on to the MSTP program at Harvard/MIT. We are thrilled for him to share this (excerpted) announcement on his receipt of a PD Soros Fellowship!
“Shyam (included in the ‘to’ line in this email) has been named a 2020 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow. We’ve taken a full-page ad out in today’s New York Times to highlight the news!
If you’re not familiar with our organization, we support outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing a graduate education in the United States. We select 30 individuals a year and each receives up to $90,000 towards their graduate education. This year’s Fellows were selected from a pool of 2,211 applicants from across the country. Shyam, who will be using the Fellowship to pursue an MD/PhD in neuroscience at Harvard University and MIT, was selected for their drive, creativity, intellectual spirit, and their commitment to the values at the heart of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Shyam joins the dynamic community of Paul & Daisy Soros, which includes individuals such as former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; California Surgeon General Nadine Burke-Harris; Stanford AI leader Fei-Fei Li; Lieutenant Governor of Washington Cyrus Habib; composer Paola Prestini; computational biologist Pardis Sabeti; award-winning writer Kao Kalia Yang, and more than 650 other New American leaders. I hope this will be a lifelong community for Shyam.
Here is Shyam’s PD Soros website page, which includes a short biography. You can find the biographies of all the 2020 Fellows here.”