HST 2026 graduation

There were 54 clinician-scientists in this year’s graduating class, 40 attended the celebration.

Mindy Blodgett | HST/IMES

The Harvard-MIT program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) “has nurtured us in a unique way, nurturing empathy and innovation,” said Adam Berger, HST MD ’26, HST MEMP PhD ‘24, the student speaker at the 2026 HST graduation on May 26.

“We are armed with these wings, because patients needed us yesterday,” Berger said. “They’ll need us tomorrow.” In looking back at his time at HST, Berger said that he and his fellow students “had endured a roller-coaster” on the path of learning, but he said the experience enabled self-discovery, along with intense training.

The graduates celebrated receiving their degree, before an audience of family, friends, HST faculty and staff, in a ceremony at the Bartos Atrium on the MIT campus. The 54 graduates included recipients of 31 HST Medical Degrees (MD), 22 Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) PhDs, and one Certificate of Graduate Education and Medical Sciences.

There were 40 graduates in attendance. HST MD graduates also participated in a Harvard graduation ceremony on May 28, and graduates of the MEMP PhD program participated in the MIT School of Engineering Advanced Degree ceremony, and hooding event, on May 25. The speaker at the School of Engineering ceremony was Geoffrey von Maltzahn, MIT ’03 HST PhD ’10, co-founder and CEO of Lila Sciences and General Partner at Flagship Pioneering.

HST Associate Director Richard N. Mitchell, MD, PhD, gave the traditional opening remarks, wearing his customary Boston Red Sox hat with tassel. Congratulatory presentations were delivered by Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean George Q. Daley, MD (HST ’91), PhD; and Alex K. Shalek, PhD, director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), MIT. MD degrees were presented by Joshua Ziperstein, MD, Instructor, MGH, Matthew Frosch, MD (HST ’87), PhD, HST associate director, admissions and Daniel A. Solomon, MD, HST associate director, Clinical Learning. PhD degrees were presented by the director of HST at MIT, Collin M. Stultz, MD, (HST ’97), PhD, director of HST at MIT. Also participating in the ceremony were Thomas Heldt, PhD (HST MEMP ’04), associate director of IMES, as well as Junne Kamihara, MD (HST ’08), PhD, HST associate director, MD advising. Bernard Chang, MD, dean for medical education, Harvard Medical School, David Golan, MD, PhD, dean for research initiatives and global programs, Harvard Medical School, and Henrike C. Besche, PhD, director of education in HST, were in attendance.

Dean Daley, an HST alumnus, told the graduates told the graduates that “you can be the driver of technological and scientific progress,” as he cited AI as one development that could be harnessed to help scientists and clinicians. And he lauded their HST training, saying that it imparts “the intellectual courage that is the hallmark of the HST program.”

Shalek told the graduates that he knew that “HST is not an easy path” and that they’ve “balanced ambition with exhaustion” during their time training and learning. He ended his remarks by telling the graduates that “I’ve seen your talent, compassion, creativity” and that “the world needs you now, more than ever.”

The ceremony was followed by a lunch with family, friends, faculty and staff, in the atrium of Building E15.

 

The HST 2026 graduates: 

 

Doctor of Medicine

Medical Sciences

 

Mythri Ambatipudi, BS

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: The Role of Bioactive Lipids and Eicosanoid Metabolites in

Acute Exercise in Adults: Insights into Human Cardiorespiratory Fitness

 

Isabel Barnet, SB

Thesis Topic: Long-Term Effects of Total Body Irradiation on Bone

Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior in Rhesus Macaques

 

Adam Berger, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Systematic engineering of controlled, localized

oligonucleotide delivery systems for wound angiogenesis

 

Alaina Bever, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Genetic, metabolomic, & lifestyle dynamics in colorectal

cancer and chronic disease prevention

 

Gabriel Brito, BS

Thesis Topic: Gene Expression and Pathway Changes Induced by Topical

Tapinarof in Human Skin Xenografts

 

Sarah Chang, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Control of Cellular Redox State and Biomass Synthesis

 

Adriana P. Echeverria Gonzalez, BS, MS

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Genetic Architecture of Arthrofibrosis after Total Knee

Arthroplasty: GWAS And Polygenic Risk Analysis with Multi-Ancestry

Validation

 

Mauricio Garcia, BA

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Heterozygous LTBP2 Loss-of-Function Variant Carriers

have an Increased Risk of Adult-onset Primary Open Angle Glaucoma

 

Preston Ge, BS, MS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Subcellular Profiling of Dopaminergic Mitochondria:

Adaptations to the Axonal Environment in Health and Disease

 

Kathleen Higgins, BA, PhD

Thesis Topic: Rapid Expansion and Specialization of the Bitter Taste

Receptor Family in Amphibians

 

Samantha Hoffman, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Multiomic insights into gastroenteropancreatic

neuroendocrine tumor biology

 

Catherine Hua, BA

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Development of a total biological elbow replacement

 

Meghana Kamineni, SB

Thesis Topic: Deep learning-derived splenic radiomics, genomics, and

coronary artery disease

 

Daniel Kim, BS

Thesis Topic: Immune Profiling of Dermatologic Adverse Events from

Checkpoint Blockade Using Tissue Cyclic Immunofluorescence

 

Edward L. Kong, BS, PhD

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Essays on the Economics of Pharmaceuticals and Infectious

Disease

 

Jiwoo Lee, BS, MS

magna cum laude

James Tolbert Shipley Prize

Thesis Topic: Metabolomic and proteomic analysis of incident and

recurrent cardiovascular and vascular diseases

 

Chanthia Chanjuan Ma, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Genomic Studies in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

(CTE): From External Traumas to Genetic Alterations

 

William Mannherz, BS, PhD

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Control of human telomerase activity by nucleotide

Metabolism

 

Dominie Miyasato, BS

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Protein Nanoparticles for Intracellular Delivery of

Transcription Factors for Cancer Immunotherapy

 

Aparna Nair-Kanneganti, BS

magna cum laude

The Seidman Prize for Outstanding HST Senior Medical Student Thesis

Thesis Topic: The value of aggregate information: improving the accuracy

of predictive algorithms in ultrasound reconstruction and natural language

 

Mustafa Nasir-Moin, BA

Thesis Topic: Development of a Deep Learning Algorithm for the

Diagnosis of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection

 

Anusha Mehul Nathan, BS, PhD

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Rational Design of CD8+ T Cell Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2

 

Leonard Nettey, BA, MS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Evaluating Immunological Treatment and Prevention

Strategies Using Single-Cell Genomics

 

Brittany Petros, BA, PhD

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: Genomic methods for the surveillance and epidemiologic

inference of respiratory viral pathogens

 

Sanjana Shah, BS

magna cum laude

Thesis Topic: MECOM Gene Network Drives Chemotherapy Resistance in

High-Risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia

 

Rui Iris Wu, BA

cum laude

Thesis Topic: Assessing Ventricular Responses in Preload Failure

 

Thomas Xu, BS, PhD

Thesis Topic: Surface display of proteins on bone marrow-derived dendritic

cells induces humoral immune responses and anaphylaxis

 

Emily Yedam Yang, BS

Thesis Topic: The impact of limited English proficiency on injury patterns

and imaging utilization in intimate partner violence

 

Felita Zhang, BS

HMS Belonging and Community Award

Thesis Topic: Platinum Metallized Focus Rotary Jet Spun Anisotropic Fiber

Electrodes

 

Kevin Zheng, BS, MBA

Thesis Topic: Use of Machine Learning in detecting EEG-based biomarkers

of Alzheimer's Disease Progression

 

Lillian Zhu, BS

Thesis Topic: Directed Functional Reinnervation to Curb Nociception and

Enable Sensation

 

Doctor of Philosophy

Medical Engineering/Medical Physics

 

Yue Zhi Russ Chua, BNG

Thesis Topic: Neuroimaging Foundation Model

 

Alicia D’Souza, BS

Thesis Topic: Signaling at the Tumor-Immune Interface in Glioblastoma

 

Louis B. DeRidder, BS

Thesis Topic: A closed-loop drug delivery system for personalized drug

Dosing

 

Dennis Gong, BS

Thesis Topic: Understanding Treatment Resistance and Residual Disease in

Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

 

Katarzyna Grzelak, BS, MS

Thesis Topic: Engineering Perfusable Vascular Networks Using Exogenous

Electrical Stimulation

 

Joe Bahij Hakim, BS

Thesis Topic: Clinical Applications of Causal Inference, Machine Learning,

and Pharmacovigilance Safety Guardrails

 

Jordan Harrod, BS

Thesis Topic: Impact of Sleep-Related Factors in Alzheimer's Disease

 

Colin Hemez, BS

Thesis Topic: Accelerating the development and application of genetic

Medicines

 

Amanda Claire Hornick, BS

Thesis Topic: Multiplexed, High-Throughput Serum Assays Using

Lentivirus Display to Analyze Antibody Responses

 

Karim Hisham Kadry Abdelmeguid, BS, MS

Thesis Topic: Integrating Deep Learning, Spatial Computing, and Physics

Simulations for Digital Cardiology

 

Brandon Krupczak, MS

Thesis Topic: Cell Therapy Manufacturing for Reduced Heterogeneity and

Enhanced Therapeutic Efficacy in Treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress

Syndrome

 

Madelyn MacRobbie, BS

Thesis Topic: Detecting Tight Junction-Mediated Epithelial Barrier

Dysfunction in Altered Gravity Environments

 

Daniel Lewis Magley, BS

Thesis Topic: Wireless Thermal Capsule Endoscopy: A Bowel Preparation

Free, Sedation Free, Outpatient Alternative to Colonoscopy

 

Rory Vu Mather, BA, MS

Thesis Topic: Identifying a Novel Opioid-Specific EEG Biomarker That

Can Be Targeted to Improve Patient Pain- and Opioid-Related Outcomes

 

Rajib Mondal, BS, MS

Thesis Topic: Gastrointestinal neurotechnology to study the gut-innervating

autonomic nervous system in freely behaving rodents

 

Favour Obuseh, BS

Thesis Topic: Enhancing Gamma Delta (γδ) T-Cell Therapies Through

Engineered Biochemical and Mechanical Microenvironments

 

Mark David Olchanyi, MNG

Thesis Topic: Structural Characterization of Human Brainstem Networks

Critical to Consciousness with High- and Low-Field Diffusion Tensor

Imaging

 

Morgan Bruce DeWitt Talbot, BS

Thesis Topic: Emulating and Enhancing Human Visual Perception and

Learning with Image-Computable Models

 

Alexandra Gabrielle Tchir, BS

Thesis Topic: Vitrification of isolated mitochondria enables preservation of

function and cellular integration

 

Yuzhou Evelyn Tong, BS

Thesis Topic: From Observation to Perturbation: Dissecting Cell State

Transitions in Immune and Cancer Cells

 

Anurag Jayant Vaidya, SBH

Thesis Topic: Biology-Guided Representation Learning for Computational

Pathology

 

Ashley Westerfield, BS

Thesis Topic: A 3D human liver tissue model of the hepatobiliary junction

 

Certificate

Graduate Education in Medical Sciences

 

Forrest G. Fitzgerald, BA

Thesis Topic: Chemically Circumventing the Oxidative Instability of

Boronic Acids for Biological Applications