Three Harvard Medical School students have been awarded the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a merit-based award that supports outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate education in the United States.

Ronak Desai, Arya Rao, and Ananthan Sadagopan were among the 1 percent of students selected from a competitive national pool and recognized for their academic achievements, leadership, and potential to contribute meaningfully to society. Each fellowship provides up to $90,000 in funding for graduate study.

Ronak Desai. Image: Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation

Desai and Rao are fourth-year PhD students in the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD program who will complete their medical education at HMS after their doctoral work. Ananthan is a second-year Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences PhD student pursuing his studies in the Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at HMS.

Ronak Desai was recognized for his work advancing infectious disease treatment through the integration of medicine, science, and public policy.

Desai was born in Tyler, Texas, to immigrants from Gujarat, India, and grew up in nearby Lindale. As a high school student, he became a national leader in speech and debate, winning three state championships and more than 20 tournaments.

He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in chemistry and biochemistry. His research on engineering novel polyketide synthases to develop next-generation antibiotics led to publications in Cell and Nature Communications. Working with physicians in Lindale, Tyler, and Austin, he heard patient stories and perspectives that inspired him to continue helping patients at the individual and systemic levels as a physician himself.

Desai also interned at the U.S. House of Representatives as a Bill Archer Fellow to better understand barriers to care.

Now pursuing his PhD in chemistry with James J. Collins, visiting professor of systems biology in the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, he focuses on using artificial intelligence to discover and design novel antibiotics.

Arya Rao was chosen for her work applying AI to improve patient care and advance health equity.

Arya Rao. Image: Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation

Rao was raised in rural northern Michigan by physician parents who had emigrated from India. She entered Columbia University at age 16 and graduated with degrees in biochemistry and computer science, earning multiple academic honors and serving as captain of the women’s water polo team.

Rao is currently a Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences PhD student pursuing her studies in the Program in Biomedical Informatics at HMS, specifically the Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics track. She conducts her research at Harvard and MIT with Pardis Sabeti (a former Soros Fellow) and Sangeeta Bhatia, visiting professor of the Wyss Institute, developing AI-driven approaches to therapeutic design.

She also leads the MESH AI Research Group at Mass General Brigham, where she builds simulation tools to evaluate clinical AI systems before deployment. She was part of a team that received a 2024 HMS Dean’s Innovation Award for the Use of AI in Education, Research, and Administration to support that work. Some of the tools she has helped develop are now used across the HMS community.

Rao’s work has been widely recognized, including selection to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Healthcare 2026, along with multiple awards from HMS and the Massachusetts Medical Society. She has published more than 30 manuscripts in journals including JAMA, Nature, and NEJM AI and has delivered talks at national and international forums.

She plans to pursue a career as a surgeon-scientist focused on advancing equitable access to emerging medical technologies.

Ananthan Sadagopan. Image: Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation

Ananthan Sadagopan was recognized for his work advancing computational and chemical approaches to cancer therapeutics.

Sadagopan grew up in Westborough, Massachusetts, the child of immigrants from Chennai, India. His parents immersed him in their culture — teaching him Tamil, the Vedas, and mridangam, a two-sided drum used in South Indian classical music — while emphasizing the importance of education.

He distinguished himself early in chemistry, winning the You Be the Chemist Challenge in middle school and earning a gold medal at the 2020 International Chemistry Olympiad in high school.

He went on to attend MIT, graduating in three years with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology. As an undergraduate, he conducted research spanning computational and chemical biology, contributing to projects on cancer genomics, protein relocalization, and therapeutic targeting of the cancer oncogene TP53. His work has been patented and published in journals including Cell and Nature Chemical Biology.

For his PhD work as a Hertz and Herchel Smith Fellow at Harvard, Sadagopan focuses on developing strategies to de-risk new cancer treatments. He is co-mentored by William Gibson, HMS instructor in medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Benjamin Ebert, the HMS Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber, President and CEO of Dana-Farber, and director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

Sadagopan hopes that his work will inspire pharmaceutical companies to bring first-in-class therapies to patients. He is also committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists in the lab.