Benz Prize

Sam Anchipolovsky

By the time Sam joined the LSM program as an internal transfer at the end of his first year, he had already demonstrated a burgeoning passion for biotech and healthcare along with a public-spirited entrepreneurial spirit. At that time, he was already Co-Director of Locust Bioventures, a student-run organization partnering with startups within the Penn ecosystem to spin out nascent ideas, and he continued to help lead them throughout his time at Penn. In his first year, Sam had already gained experience of basic research through a study of a potential repurposed role for an antibiotic for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease, as well as of the business side of health tech through work with CareAlign.ai, a startup focused on improving the provider hand-off experience, and he enjoyed the opportunities in LSM to further explore the wide range of possibilities in biotech and health care.

During his science internship at Regeneron in the Clinical Trial Management department, Sam learned the intricacies of designing large-scale clinical trials, and in his part-time work at Aegis Ventures he got to see the importance of identifying pain points in the healthcare delivery system to develop successful innovations.  For his business internship, Sam secured a position as an Analyst with Credit Suisse. Additionally, he gained extensive research experience in Dr. Huafeng Wei's lab at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, investigating the potential repurposing of anesthetic drugs for treating neurodegenerative disorders and related malignancies.

Beyond his individual accomplishments, Sam's standout contribution to the LSM program was his role as the founding co-coordinator of the LSM Pipeline.  He was instrumental in developing and teaching the first LSM curriculum for local West Philadelphia high school students interested in STEM, and his devotion was such that he stayed with the program beyond his initial two-year requirement to continue being a positive influence and Pipeline leader throughout his senior year. Sam will go on to ClearView Healthcare Partners, where he will work in healthcare consulting, with plans to pursue medical school later. 

Shaurya Khanna

Shaurya has had a lasting and indelible impact on the LSM community through his dynamic and gregarious leadership as President of the LSM Student Advisory Board. He initiated numerous projects and co-organized various events that fostered a sense of community beyond the classroom. Known for his innate kindness, he directly supported and mentored many new students, also serving as an LSM Peer Advisor. His empathy and influence extended beyond the program; Shaurya co-founded and coordinated the LSM Pipeline program, where he helped develop a STEM-focused curriculum and educational events for local West Philadelphia high school students. Additionally, he volunteered as a Patient Navigator, assisting non-English speaking patients and helping undocumented patients secure insurance and legal advice. As if that is not enough, he has also been working on related research, concerned with using AI to bridge gaps in clinical trial enrollment for underrepresented and non-English speaking patients.

Shaurya never lost any of the enormous enthusiasm for science that he brought to the program.  In addition to pursuing a concentration in Molecular and Cell Biology, he conducted extensive research in the lab of Professor Katherine Nathanson of the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, studying undiscovered risk factors involved in hereditary breast cancer.  On the business front, he largely channeled his curiosity into consulting by serving for two years as a project leader with the student-run MUSE Consulting organization, working with clients across various industries. His primary passion, however, has always been health care.  Complementing his Wharton concentration in Health Care Management and Policy, he completed a business internship with ClearView Healthcare Partners, where he will return full-time after graduation.  Shaurya aspires to combine his dedication to patient care and research by eventually pursuing an MD.

Michal Odrobina

Michal has demonstrated exceptional aptitude in both science and leadership, with a profound passion for the intersection of science and business. Born in Kraków, Poland, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, upon his arrival on campus, he was quick to have an impact by joining the Wharton Investment and Trading Group, the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society (where he eventually served as President), and Wharton Europe (serving as Vice President). His contributions to the LSM community were invaluable, showcasing his generosity, wisdom, and hands-on organizational prowess as an active member of the LSM Student Advisory Board.

Michal's enthusiasm for science extended beyond the classroom. He spent three years working in Dr. John Maris's lab at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, researching neuroblastoma. His work focused on identifying new therapeutic targets for chemotherapy-resistant neuroblastoma, particularly the role of the AXL protein. More recently, he explored a synthetic lethality approach to treat high-risk neuroblastoma patients, utilizing a PLK4 inhibitor to target tumors with increased TRIM37 expression.

Despite his demanding schedule, Michal earned a degree in Biology with a concentration in Mechanisms of Disease, alongside a Wharton degree with concentrations in Finance and Health Care Management. An avid outdoorsman, he was an active member of the UPenn Ski Team, while at the same time excelling competitively in another way in national consulting case competitions. Michal's next venture is with MTS Health Partners, where he will serve as a healthcare investment banking analyst.

Alan Chang

Alan sincerely appreciates how memorable, valuable, and unique his LSM experience has been. Early on in LSM Proseminar, he discovered his passion for the field of healthcare, particularly the life sciences. Since then, his experiences at the intersection of business and life sciences include co-founding Locust Bioventures alongside two other LSMers (Sireesh Ramesh & Ken Jiao) to help spin out new Penn biotech companies, leading the Wharton Investment and Trading Group as President and Healthcare Portfolio Manager, performing CAR-T research at Dr. Carl June’s lab, and learning from generous members of the LSM village. Altogether, through a myriad of experiences on campus, Alan has nurtured his passion for biotech and hopes ultimately to translate his knowledge into tangible impact in the future.

Off campus, through various internships, Alan has had the opportunity to learn from industry experts and gain real-world experience. At Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Bristol Myers Squibb, Alan performed oncology research and learned how pharmaceutical companies operate under the hood. He also interned at Aegis Ventures, where he assisted in building new healthcare AI companies, as well as LifeSci Venture Partners, where he helped consider prospective private and public healthcare investments. Alan spent his junior internship working on biotech M&A at Centerview Partners in San Francisco, where he will return after graduation. In his free time, Alan enjoys cooking new recipes, playing outdoor games, going on a run on Locust Walk, and hanging out with friends.

Ananya Dewan

Ananya’s desire to harness entrepreneurship to maximize positive impacts for patients has motivated many of her undertakings at Penn. Her entrepreneurial spirit earned her awards from Upstate Medical University, the Penn Wharton Innovation Fund, the Venture Lab Start-Up Challenge, and the Draper Competition for Collegiate Women Entrepreneurs. She was also a member of the winning 2022 Y Prize team, which proposed reducing surgical complications by using steerable needle technology to pass wires around fractures. Seeking to understand the role of translation in health innovation, Ananya dedicated her research to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Ananya’s entrepreneurial interests have also extended to public health to help democratize access to care. In response to the health inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ananya helped improve access to ophthalmological care in northeastern India through the Connective Care Initiative. She also worked with a women’s health biotech start-up that sought to broaden access to safe miscarriage medication.

As LSM Student Advisory Board President, Ananya brought a similar zeal for mentoring LSM students and advocating for her peers. Concomitantly, she started a resume workshop for veterans and volunteered to alleviate social determinants of health. After graduation, Ananya will continue to explore the intersection between innovation, service, and medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Haoxiang (Harry) Hou

Harry has been involved in many aspects of the Penn community. He has been the drummer and band manager of the Glee Club Band, performing at events on and off campus, and founded Musicians at Penn to create a space for student musicians to meet each other. He has been a member of the Kite & Key tour guide society for all four years, providing tours to perspective families every week. He is also a member of the Ski and Snowboard team and was qualified in Men’s Alpine Snowboarding to represent Penn at the 2023 USCSA Regional Competition. In addition, he joined the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society during his first year and went on to become a project lead in the consulting branch for two years, leading teams of students to provide pro bono market research and assessment for early stage, pre-clinical biotechnology or medical device startups at the Penn Health System. 

However, more important to Harry is his passion to give back to the community. He was the president of MEDLIFE UPenn, Brotherhood Chair for Alpha Iota Gamma, a pre-health co-ed fraternity at Penn, and the Philanthropy Chair of Friars Senior Society. All of these positions allowed him to organize events that benefit both the local and global community, such as: Pre-Health at Penn, a bi-weekly speaker series covering topics relevant to pre-health academic and career paths for all Penn students; regular volunteering shifts at MANNA, an organization that provides meals for patients who are at acute nutritional risk due to serious illness; blood drives; fundraisers; and charity runs. Working with other student performing arts groups and local vendors, Harry organized the 17th annual Friarside Coffee House, which he helped raise over $4000 for the International Rescue Committee. He is also the secretary and dog-walker for STEP-UP (Service Dog Training and Education Program at UPenn), which trains and provides service dogs for the local community. In what free time remained, Harry also volunteered as a patient experience coordinator at the Magee Rehabilitation Hospital and at the Penn Park Farm.

Shiva Teerdhala

Throughout his time at Penn, Shiva imaginatively and dedicatedly pursued his interest in entrepreneurship, specifically within the biotech and medical device industries. As a consultant with Wharton Venture Lab’s Snider Consulting, he worked with nine early-stage biotech companies since his freshman year to advise them on matters ranging from pricing to go-to-market strategies. Additionally, Shiva, along with fellow LSM and Penn Engineering students, founded a start-up developing a minimally invasive surgical tool for fracture repair. This project received $30K in funding from winning Wharton’s Y-Prize competition as well as from the Venture Lab Start-Up Challenge. 

Shiva’s other extracurricular pursuits further reflect his interest in the intersection of life sciences and business. Throughout his undergrad years, Shiva was involved with a lab at CHOP investigating the use of CRISPR-cas9 gene editing to cure hereditary diseases prior to birth. For his scientific research internship, he used his understanding of basic science and clinical study design at ByHeart, a start-up developing a close-to-nature baby formula. Finally, for his business internship he worked in healthcare consulting at Simon-Kucher and Partners, dealing with pricing of a soon-to-be launched gene therapy. After graduation, Shiva will be working at Bain & Company in New York City.

Yu-Chia Cheng

Yu-Chia has somehow managed to combine gathering considerable experience of business with pursuing a real passion for research, as well as building community, and helping a lot of people, through her service and leadership in LSM and across campus. The summer following her first year, and then part-time through her sophomore year, Yu-Chia worked at Oncoceutics, a biotech company developing novel cancer therapies, in clinical development and in business development, helping to find potential new indications for the company’s lead asset. For her business internship, after junior year, she worked in health care investment banking at Centerview, in San Francisco, where she will return after graduation. For her scientific research internship, and throughout much of her time at Penn (culminating in an honors thesis in Biology), Yu-Chia worked in the lab of Dr. Jon Epstein, where her various projects all centered on how the organization of chromatin in the nucleus – “nuclear architecture" – contributes to cell identity. Her early work in the lab resulted in co-authorship of a paper in a peer-reviewed journal, and she subsequently completed an honors thesis. Yu-Chia managed to complete enough courses early that she was part-time in her final semester; she spent most of her extra time in the lab, pursuing her love of research. Yu-Chia demonstrated a dizzying variety of skills, and eagerness to help others, even beyond courses and research in serving as a Peer Tutor at the Weingarten Center, as Social Chair with 180 Degree Consulting, as VP of Member Engagement for the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club, and as Chief of Operations for Penn’s Intercollegiate Model UN Team – not to mention a part-time job at a boba shop! Yu-Chia hopes at some point, after gaining business experience, to pursue a biosciences Ph.D.

Charitha Moparthy

Charitha, or Cherry as her friends know her, has been a leader in the LSM community through her own good example as a fine student, and through her kindness in helping others. The range of her activities has been impressive, from scientific research to business analysis to teaching to dance! Cherry worked in Dr. Ellen Puré’s lab in the Biomedical Sciences department of Penn Vet. She investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying inflammation and fibrosis to better understand the heterogeneity in the tumor stroma and the manner in which different cell types interact to influence tumor immune responses. On top of her research here at Penn, Cherry gained a variety of interesting summer experiences, from working at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India as a Strategic Analysis and Product Development Intern, to her internship with Circa Health Capital Partners as a Private Equity Summer Analyst. Acting on her desire to share her skills and knowledge, and encourage others, Cherry has served as the Chief Research Officer for Penn's Smart Women Securities (SWS). In this role she created a curriculum diving into topics such as accounting, corporate valuation, and financial markets and held weekly sessions over the COVID semesters to walk freshmen and sophomore students through these concepts. In the spare time she somehow found, Cherry served as a choreographer for PENNach, a Bollywood dance troupe at Penn. She could be found also at Pottruck gym teaching group fitness classes or lifting weights. She’s starting work now at Point72 Capital in New York.

Ken Jiao

Throughout his time at Penn, Ken Jiao has been involved in a myriad of academic and entrepreneurial endeavors. He’s prepared himself for advancing innovation through degrees in computational biology and in statistics and finance, with a view to pursuing and advancing innovation at the intersection of healthcare and technology. At Penn, this led him to co-found Locust Bioventures, a student group that bridges the gap between discovery and venture creation in biotech at Penn. Ken was responsible for performing services such as competitive analysis, developing business plans, financial models and clinical strategies. Ken was also a Penn President’s Innovation Prize semifinalist in his final year. In his time at Penn, Ken has also been putting his skills to work in Dr. Jon Yoon’s lab studying clinical neurosurgery, specifically spinal surgery patient recovery data. Ken will be going to JP Morgan Healthcare Investment Banking after graduation.

Kevin Deng

Kevin Deng has shown great initiative in everything he has pursued in his time at Penn, as well as a great willingness to help others. Kevin has been a part of the Penn Venture Lab for many years, starting as a pioneer for LSM, and with his final role being an Engagement Manager/ Venture Consultant. In this role Kevin managed consultant teams and conducted structured interviews/surveys and in-depth science/market secondary research for extensive product analysis. Kevin also spent many years as a Writing Fellow at the Penn Marks Family Writing Center tutoring undergraduate and graduate students across all disciplines in one-on-one tutoring sessions. Kevin undertook an interestingly varied set of summer internships during his time in LSM. His first summer he spent as a Business Honors Intern in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. The next summer he used his computational and analytic skills in the service of OneThree Biotech, an AI drug development startup. And then for his business internship, he served as a healthcare investment banking summer analyst with Goldman Sachs, where he has returned following graduation.

Priyansh Gupta

Priyansh hopes ultimately to use his LSM knowledge and skills to start his own business in the health care field. He already showed his leadership skills and put his knowledge to work as a student; Priyansh joined the Wharton Investment and Trading Group (WITG) his first year, and went on to become the Executive Vice President and a member of the Special Situations Group. He was responsible for overseeing a 300+ person recruiting process for all WITG investment teams. He was also the health care portfolio manager for Quaker Finance Group. And latterly, Priyansh worked with a startup, XpressRx, with the goal of using blockchain technology to help reduce medical costs. During the summers, Priyansh enhanced his professional experience by interning at Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, where he was a part of the Global Business Development, Partnerships and Ventures team, and later at Bank of American Merrill Lynch as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst in life sciences and health care. In true LSM style, alongside his various business-related ventures, Priyansh also engaged in scientific research in the lab of Dr. William Peranteau of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, helping look into reactivating zeta globin expression for patients with alpha thalassemia.

Emma Lu 

There are many ways in which Emma demonstrated her entrepreneurial skills while at Penn, of which her extraordinary record in hackathons, case, and stock pitch competitions feature. Indeed, she placed among the top three in seven U.S. competitions, winning four of them, and was an international semifinalist and finalist in two large international contests. Of particular note is how she has used her considerable skills in this area not only in competitions but also in providing real-world benefit to a number of businesses during her time as an undergraduate. As Vice President of Wharton Analytics Fellows, she oversaw and participated in a variety of analytics consulting projects with such clients as Comcast and Major League Baseball, and used machine learning models to make a range of valuable projections for Citi Venture. And as a member of the healthcare and sustainability team of Wharton Impact Venture Associates, for which she was selected, she has assisted with evaluations and recommendations for investments. Note that for her life sciences research internship as a Microbiology Summer Research Fellow at Academia Sinica, Emma also used her scientific talents and knowledge, where she was concerned with the development of nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometric techniques. For her business internship with Bain & Company, she did consultative work for clients in the healthcare and technology sectors.  Emma was hired for work after graduation as a Private Equity Analyst for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

Hardi Patel 

Throughout her time at Penn Hardi has been adventurous both academically (for example, in addition to two challenging degrees, she took a full year of Sanskrit) and in a very literal way through travel: she was selected as a Venture Fellow by Wharton Leadership Ventures, and in this capacity was to lead expeditions to Patagonia and Antarctica -- though these were canceled due to COVID, she did lead intensive trainings in sailing and mountain biking; and as a Penn Medicine India Fellow she traveled to Bangalore to help coordinate care, document medical history, and collect radiological scans for cardiology research. She also traveled to Colombia, and to India (Mumbai) again through a Wharton International Program and a Global Modular Course. Likewise, Hardi’s adventurous imagination, intelligence, and teambuilding skills were brought to bear not only in her LSM Capstone course but also in winning the Grand Prize at MIT Hacking Medicine for co-founding Clinform, and through an internship (sponsored in part through a Penn Wharton Startup Internship Award) with an already existing startup, AllStripes (co-founded by LSM alumna Nancy Yu). Previously Hardi had secured an internship with Genentech, helping to spearhead clinical drug development strategy and optimize clinical pharmacology deliverables. And in between all of this she did an honors thesis focusing on childhood cancers in John Maris’ Laboratory at CHOP, while at the same time serving as a much-valued Teaching Assistant in courses in managerial economics, computer programming, and technology, innovation, and venture development. Her employment following Penn is in consulting with Bain & Company.

Ranjan (Ricky) Pati 

Before arriving at Penn, Ricky already had two patents to his name, one in vertical gardening and another in water filtration, the latter of which he gave away because it was intended for low-income countries. These specific applications are related to his overarching interest in environmental sustainability and human disease, with emphasis on how scientific innovations can help under-resourced communities. And since arriving at Penn his pace of innovation has not slowed down; quite the contrary. In fact, his efforts have culminated in his winning the Perlman Grand Prize (and the undergraduate prize – the Grand Prize is usually won by graduate students) at the Wharton Venture Lab Startup Challenge, through the company he founded: 3Cor Bio. This company, on which Ricky has been able to focus his efforts since graduating, is built around a low-cost, rapid, and accurate test for infectious diseases, targeted at low-income countries and communities. Especially timely is the COVID-19 test he developed with the help of the de la Fuente laboratory here at Penn, though Ricky also has his eye on other diseases where there is a similarly urgent need for affordable diagnostics. Previously, Ricky had honed his skills not only through his courses, which he selected carefully in order to equip himself with the skills and knowledge needed (including advanced courses in genomics), but also, for example, through his success in pitch competitions, his real-world experience in founding a venture-backed medical device company, and through two internships: a science internship with Genentech, and a business internship with Point72 Asset Management. His commitment to bettering society is similarly evident from his history of community service, for example with the Netter Center’s Bridges to Wealth program.

Andrew Gu 

Not only is Andrew recognized for his admirable academic and leadership skills, but also for his tireless support of fellow students. Despite a busy schedule packed with classes and extracurricular activities, Andrew could often be overheard in the LSM lounge sharing the benefit of his experience and insights with younger students, offering encouragement as well as advice on how to approach coursework, internships, research, and learning about the complexities of the life sciences industry. He amassed his own early experience in the field in part through his Presidency of the Wharton Investment and Trading Group, not only in making his own pitches in the healthcare field (he several times won prizes in stock pitch competitions), but also in overseeing the management of 11 different investment teams featuring hundreds of members. He has also led an investment team as Portfolio Manager for the Quaker Finance Group. Andrew researched Alzheimer’s disease as part of the scientific research team at Bios Partners one summer and spent the following summer with the investment bank Houlihan Lokey, as a member of their Financial Restructuring Group. On graduation, Andrew is now back in the healthcare sector, evaluating investments for the hedge fund Nantahala Capital Management.

Hope Lu

Besides showing great ingenuity and initiative in her research and business pursuits, Hope Lu also demonstrated her leadership skills at Penn, not least through her invaluable contribution to program events and the LSM community through her active role on the LSM Student Advisory Board. In business, Hope got early experience of the biopharmaceutical industry through an internship she secured with Merck at the end of her first year, putting to work some of what she learned in her LSMP 121 course in their Regulatory Affairs department. She also learned about the industry through her work as a consultant with the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society, before going on, after her junior year, to a health care investment banking internship with Cowen & Co.

In between those internships, Hope did her science internship with Professor Larry Rome, working on the study of hyperfast muscles used by midshipman fish for making their mating calls. This required the design and fabrication of an entirely new force-measuring device for installation in the fish’s nest. This was highly technical work that required close work with a machinist, as well as sophisticated analysis and a great deal of resourcefulness on Hope’s part.

Beyond her LSM-related pursuits, Hope gave the benefit of her leadership skills to Penn Club Boxing, of which she was Vice President and then Co-President. Following graduation, Hope has brought her skills and knowledge to the Boston Consulting Group.

Ishir Seth

Ishir Seth, who was President of the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society, engaged in an impressive array of healthcare-related entrepreneurial activities before graduating. Over all four years, he worked with what was then the Small Business Development Center, and then Snider Center Venture Consulting, on a variety of startup projects, culminating in a final year devoted to diagnostics and biotechnology through a partnership with the Penn Center for Innovation. Along with his teammates, he won the 2019 Y-Prize for Nosoco Technologies, which was built around the idea of using a novel surface wrinkle printing technology, created at Penn, in catheters, to prevent biofilm formation with the objective of abating the 13,000 deaths that result each year from infections associated with catheters. For these activities, Ishir also earned the Wharton Dean’s Award for Innovation.

In his final three years at Penn, Ishir engaged in research with the Beatty lab at Penn’s Smilow Center for Translational Research, using computational methods to design new ways to analyze immune cells and improve immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. And in addition to his presidency of PUBS, he was a health care sector analyst with the Wharton Investment and Trading Group, and a Senior Consultant with Penn International Impact Consulting, where he helped a Singaporean wildlife rescue NGO. Ishir did his business internship in health care investment banking with J.P. Morgan; following graduation, he has been using his knowledge of science and business in management consulting with Bain & Co.

Jiou Choi

Jiou Choi was of great service to the LSM community as President of the LSM Student Advisory Board, taking the lead in the organization of many LSM events, and sharing her and other students’ ideas with staff and faculty – in addition to providing good counsel to younger students already in the program and prospective students looking to join it. That said, Jiou’s commitment to service extended beyond the program and beyond campus. Not long after she arrived on campus, she organized a recognition luncheon for the Foster Grandparents program and in her final two years at Penn, she volunteered with Service Link, a program established by the Penn Center for Public Health Initiatives, through which she connected patients with public benefits and community resources to help address non-medical determinants of health. This she did while serving as a volunteer engaging with pediatric patients at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Jiou pursued both research and business-related activities while at Penn. She worked in the Wilusz lab in the Perelman medical school’s Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics during the school years and over her first two summers, to coauthor a publication on aberrant gene translation processes, an area of study that may generate opportunities for therapies for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases while at the same time working with the marketing group of the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society. 

Jiou’s business internship was in investment banking with MTS Health Partners. After graduation she joined ClearView Healthcare Partners to work as a consultant.

Ryan Leone

Ryan’s activities and achievements while in LSM have been quite considerable. Highlights include winning the Wharton Dean’s Award for Excellence, and a Thouron Award that will allow him to travel to King’s College London after graduation to do an MSc in War & Psychiatry. This follows logically from his LSM internships, which were at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research, and then the Defense Health Agency. After his Master’s in the UK, Ryan plans to go to medical school in the US, and become a physician and manager in the US Army – ultimately, hopefully, in a senior role in the health system, although in the shorter term he might follow the interest he has developed in trauma (through quite extensive research at Penn’s Department of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency Surgery) and go into emergency medicine. Ryan is enormously dedicated to service, as reflected in his presidency of the Kite and Key society, and among other things, a constant eagerness to be of help to his fellow students in the LSM program. His service has been rewarded with the Bowl Award, a Pillar of the Community Award from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, and the New RA of the Year award. His excellent communication skills, as well as his research prowess, are reflected in his CWiC Emerging Scholar Award; he also contributed to the undergraduate science journal Synapse throughout all eight of his semesters at Penn, latterly as Executive Editor. As if that is not enough, he did all this while not only while excelling in his coursework, but also as a student athlete on the Varsity Sprint Football team.

A.J. Sacks

A.J. hopes ultimately to become an investor in the biotech industry; his first stop will be working as an analyst at MTS Health Partners, where he interned last summer. The previous summer, he did his scientific research internship at Kite Pharma, working on their main scientific platform, the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). And the summer before that, he worked as a summer analyst on site at the Israel Biotech Fund, researching potential investments, especially with regard to potential treatments for Parkinson’s Disease. This was not his only overseas experience; A.J. much enjoyed his semester abroad at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Extra-curricularly, A.J. pursued his main interest with the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society, and has been a regular and valued asker of productive questions at our many LSM Career Conversations.

Scott MacGuidwin

Scott served as Chair of the LSM Student Advisory Board, and had a very positive impact on our community in that capacity, helping to organize events such as the Annual Retreat, in addition to representing the interests of students on a variety of matters from curricula to programming to snacks. Less formally, he has also been a stalwart of the LSM lounge, spreading good cheer and the enjoyment of good penmanship. Professionally, he will next be working with Houlihan Lokey’s life sciences group, where he interned last summer. The previous summer, he put his computational biology skills to work in the service of OneThree Biotech, a company focused on machine learning for drug discovery that is coming out of Weill Cornell. Scott also pursued his interest in the life sciences industry through taking on responsibilities with the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society.

WenTao Zhang

WenTao has already shown his entrepreneurial bent, and his desire to remedy problems that afflict many patients, through his role as one of four students (two in LSM) who won the 2019 Y-Prize in forming Nosoco Technologies. Nosoco aims to re-invent the catheter by incorporating micro-structured wrinkled instabilities to disrupt biofilm formation and thereby prevent the huge problem of catheter-related bloodstream infections. For his LSM internships, WenTao did bioinformatics research at Regeneron, and then last year he interned as a healthcare investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley, a position he will return to full-time after graduation. WenTao has also done research through the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and in stem cell regulation at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Through the Wharton Small Business Development Center, he has served as a consultant for small businesses developing products such as wearable medical devices, clinical trials software, and educational technology software. WenTao will doubtless bring the same infectious energy to future ventures as he has brought to the LSM community.

Heba Arshad

Heba has had a transformative effect on the LSM program, having served as an informal advisor to students of all years, and more formally as President of the LSM Student Advisory Board, achieving a great deal through the key role she has played in organizing programming, student mentoring across years, and establishing productive dialogue concerning the LSM curriculum and other matters of central interest to students. But this is only a small part of the impact she has had at Penn, where she served as an active and innovative President of the Penn Neuroscience Society (she majored in Biological Basis of Behavior), and, perhaps most demandingly, as President of the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society, where she helped start a conference on trends in biotech, and spearheaded efforts to provide not only information for students interested in biotech, but also recommendations for local biotech companies interested in entering the health market. Moreover, Heba has had an impact beyond Penn through her volunteer work and organization with Penn for Youth Debate, providing coaching and mentoring to young students from local schools. Heba’s achievements and her remarkable academic prowess were recognized through her winning the Wharton Dean’s Award for Excellence. Despite all the presentations she has done, Heba cites as most nerve-wracking the recitals she gave – she learned piano from scratch after arriving at Penn. Heba was a pioneer for LSM in doing a scientific research internship at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and she did her business internship at ClearView Health Partners. This fall she will begin full-time work in health care consulting with Boston Consulting Group.

Thomas Buckingham

Thomas has been another great contributor to the LSM program, in part through his effective organizational and advocacy work as Vice President of the LSM Student Advisory Board, and also through his teamwork abilities and generous helpfulness to his classmates in the Capstone course. Thomas is interested in going to medical school, but more broadly he has considered carefully how he can effectively have a positive impact on the health care system. Accordingly, he has not only done scientific research both at the Penn Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (with Dr. Gregory Beatty), and as a Global Clinical Development and Medical Affairs Intern with the Cell and Gene Therapies Unit at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, but he has also undertaken health economics and health policy-related research through the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, and as a Research Assistant for Professor Mark Pauly, former Faculty Co-Director of LSM and the Bendheim Professor of Health Care Management, working on a study on optimal co-insurance of genetic testing, among other things. In the College, Thomas majored in Biology (and minored in Chemistry), and for his Wharton degree his concentration was in Health Care Management and Policy. Beyond the classroom and beyond LSM, Thomas took on a variety of leadership roles, as a Board member with Penn Alternative Breaks (organizing numerous social-justice focused trips across the US, including one he led with Habitat for Humanity in South Carolina), and with Penn Science Across Ages, leading a group of teachers serving local 3rd grade students with an eye to encouraging their interest in science. Thomas has served his fellow students through his service with the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education, working on ways to improve the experience of first generation and low-income students. Thomas plans to pursue full-time research in health care policy after graduation.

Daniel Lundgren

Daniel brought irrepressible energy and verve to the pursuit of science and to the development of life sciences innovations. Outside of Penn, he learned about drug development through an internship at GlaxSmithKline working with the Discovery Partnerships with Academia team, and then learned about the competitive landscape in the life sciences industry from an investor’s perspective as a Summer Biotech Analyst with Adage Capital. These experiences doubtless helped with his work as one of four undergraduate Engagement Managers with the Wharton Small Business Development Center, where he managed law, MBA and undergraduate students as they provided consulting services particularly for innovative tech companies. Daniel has published an article, as first author, through his work as a Research Assistant at the Medical School with Dr. Atul Kamath comparing different hospital systems, and another in the undergraduate biomedical journal Synapse, based on an interview with Dr. Henry Daniell on a plant-based drug delivery system which actually was the basis of the Capstone project on which Daniel’s team worked. Daniel had an impact on healthcare in a rather different way through serving as Undergraduate Representative on the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee at Penn, helping to find a way to reduce premiums significantly. And Daniel, who brings to bear not only leadership qualities but also height, also co-founded and then served as President of Penn Men’s Club Basketball, raising sponsorship money and helping bring the team to the national championships. Note that Daniel was already a prizewinner earlier in his Penn Career, winning the Clarkston Scholarship for the most promising sophomore in Pennsylvania interested in the life sciences industry. For his work following graduation, Daniel has in mind both medical school and entrepreneurial endeavors.

Bela Parekh

Bela’s interests and activities have been many and varied, but an interest in medicine, especially ophthalmology, has been a persistent theme. Her freshman summer, she worked for a health tech startup in New York, implementing a patient-focused iPad patient-education application in 30 ophthalmology offices and also assisting with content creation. For her required scientific internship she went, adventurously, to do clinical and health care delivery research with the Chief Medical Officer at Aravind Eye Care Systems in Tamil Nadu, India. Closer to home, she assisted with clinical trials at the Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia. In her senior year, she conducted a different kind of research, analyzing the effect of CAR-T cell therapy on the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, and its implications for neurotoxicity. And in the spirit of LSM, she has taken an active interest in the implementation and commercialization of research, working for two years as a consultant and project leader on strategies for five different life sciences innovations at the Wharton Small Business Development Center. Elsewhere on campus, Bela, among other things, was an active member of the University Honor Council, promoting academic integrity, and participating in the Office of Student Affairs Leadership Retreat, and then beyond campus, she acted on her impulse toward community service through volunteering both with Penn Service Link (helping to connect underserved patients with public benefits and community resources) at Penn’s Family Care Center. Bela’s impressive academic credentials and her sterling record of leadership helped her win a Fulbright Award, which she declined, at this time, in order to pursue work with McKinsey before almost certainly entering medical school.

Sumun Khetpal

Sumun explored the field of health care in an impressive variety of ways while at Penn: through both science and Wharton classes, through scientific research, as a Life Sciences Consultant through the Commercialization Acceleration Project, as a summer analyst with the BioAdvance venture fund, and as a volunteer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as well as at a local school and center for senior citizens. She has most clearly demonstrated her entrepreneurial acumen, and in so doing made an important contribution to patient well-being, through the startup company she co-founded (together with Christine Yang, among others; see below). This is Ride Health, a platform that partners with the leading existing ridesharing companies in order to make sure that patients who have transportation barriers to their care can make it to their appointments. Currently many patients miss appointments because they don't have access to a car, can’t afford public transport or can’t easily use it because of distance or a disability. This prevents patients from receiving appropriate and timely care, and causes problems for caregivers and health systems. As Chief of Medical Operations, Sumun has been an integral part of the team that built the product, secured funding, and finalized pilot contracts with health systems.  In recognition of their efforts, the Ride Share team has won the Penn Wharton Innovation Fund, and made the semi-finals of the President’s Innovation Prize and the Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Startup Challenge. Individually, Sumun won the Wharton Dean's Award for Innovation. After graduation, Sumun will bring her compassion, intelligence, people skills, organizational ability, social-entrepreneurial know-how and boundless energy to Yale School of Medicine.

Christine Yang

Along with Sumun and other students, Christine was a co-founder of Ride Health, a software platform that allows healthcare systems to help patients who face transportation barriers to reach their healthcare appointments using existing on-demand ridesharing services. As Chief Financial Officer, Christine worked with venture capital firms and angel investors to raise capital. In addition to this, Christine has served as Co-President of the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club, a club popular with LSM students and across Wharton and beyond, which among other holds an impressive annual Undergraduate Healthcare Conference at Penn featuring a number of distinguished guest speakers. Christine had previously served in this group as VP of Finance, Marketing Chair, and at-large Board member; capacities in which she has overseen financial operations and managed the budget, as well as corporate sponsorship. Christine has used her finance skills professionally with the Barclays healthcare investment banking group where she was a summer analyst in her senior year and will shortly  start full-time work after graduation. Christine first learned directly about the health care industry at Gilead Sciences, Inc., as  a Clinical Operations intern, working on tools for clinical trials and analyzing drug studies, among other things, and before that, as a summer associate with the consulting firm Precision Health Economics.

Alex Saccone

In the LSM Capstone class, Alex has served as a major resource for his classmates—and also has shone as an outstanding presenter and team member in developing and explaining a business plan for a novel therapeutic platform. And indeed Alex’s record is an impressive one not only in scientific investigation, but also in service, and even in showmanship. Alex served as the President of the long-standing Penn Glee Club, having earlier served as Business Manager, not to mention drummer. This management role of a high-profile performing group involved being the primary representative for the Club in communications with University administration, and management of the  Board, as well as overseeing ambitious tours, fundraisers, and charity concerts. Alex shared his passion for music beyond Penn, too, as a Music Mentor for middle-school students here in Philadelphia, teaching them percussion. Alex’s bent for service led to his serving as an intern on a gubernatorial campaign back home in Rhode Island. The internships he has done reflect his passion for the life sciences industry: he used gene editing techniques to help with the early stages of drug discovery at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, and then he worked with a pharma client as a Summer Associate with the Boston Consulting Group, where he will return to work full-time after graduation.

Shabnam Eghbali

Shabnam has an impressive record of service to go with her sterling academic record. In her first semester on campus, she volunteered with the West Philadelphia Tutoring Center, run through Civic House. That she stayed involved throughout her time at Penn is impressive in of itself, but not enough for Shabnam, who joined the Board in her second year, and then became Director of Operations the following year. In that role, she was part of a very small team that oversaw some 300 tutors, and with characteristic energy and ingenuity she developed a spreadsheet model to optimize the pairing process for both on- and off-campus tutoring. Throughout she participated in education-related discussions with her Board, learning about education-related issues in Philadelphia, and reflecting on her own identity. That is not all; Shabnam demonstrated her leadership skills in other venues—not least in her Capstone class, where she served as an indispensable resource for her fellow students. What’s more, she served as Innovation & Impact Chair of the large Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club, heading the coordination of a case competition, before overseeing programs to expand the reach of the program both on and beyond campus. She was, among other things, on the Student Advisory Board for the Department of Biology; a student consultant for various clients with the Penn Undergraduate Biotechnology Society; and Logistics Chair for the Wharton Women Dollar Diva Conference, which is a financial literacy conference for high school girls—a list that is indicative of both Shabnam’s outward-looking, service ethic, and also her astonishingly wide range of abilities. In that vein, Shabnam has also done research both on campus at the Abramson Cancer Center focusing on preclinical models of gastrointestinal malignancies, and also at the company Kite Pharma, in California, for a summer internship focusing on their innovative CAR-T cell therapy. And Shabnam has interacted directly with patients through her volunteering at the Penn Presbyterian Emergency Department. She plans at some point to go to medical school, but after graduation she will return to Centerview Partners, where she interned after junior year, to do healthcare investment banking. On graduation, Shabnam earned the Wharton Dean's Award for Excellence.

Lucy Chen

Lucy has proven herself an exceptional student, researcher, and leader who has made great contributions to the LSM community in particular and the University in general. From the outset and throughout her time at Penn she has taken great interest in the physician-patient relationship, both as the subject of academic research, and as something she is committed to personally. In LSM, Lucy has served as a peer advisor every year she has been eligible, and been an active member of what started as the LSM Student Events Committee, and is now the LSM Student Advisory Board.  Without exception, she has been a terrific help to a great many of her peers, as well as the program leadership, communicating effectively and constructively and offering sage advice. Lucy’s research has been varied and interesting. She started in translational research at the end of freshman year, in the laboratory of Dr. John Maris at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in the field of chemotherapeutics for neuroblastoma where whenever the opportunity arose she would go into the clinic to meet with patients, and staff.  What is especially noteworthy for someone so young is that she has given presentations of her research work to senior executives at Novartis, with whom Dr. Maris collaborates on the development of novel strategies for the treatment of neuroblastoma. In addition to translational research, Lucy has worked on an end-of-life decision project, concerned with the science of decision-making. As a consummate communicator, Lucy has shared her passion for research with others by serving as writer and editor for two University-wide publications, Penn Bioethics Journal (of which she was Managing Editor), and Synapse, a healthcare journal. Lucy plans to become an academic physician-investigator, working with patients directly, but focusing on research with the potential for influencing healthcare policy. Her next step on this path is the MD/PhD degree program Harvard Medical School she will be joining in the fall of this year.

Vivek Nimgaonkar

Vivek in LSM is well known for always being willing to give advice to his fellow students even when he is very busy, which has been just about all the time, as indicated by his many and varied accomplishments. Vivek has been a standout leader who sustains and improves community wherever he applies his unique and impressive array of intellectual and interpersonal talents. Among other things, Vivek has led a student science journal (Penn Science), started a health policy group (“Wonk Tank,” a student-led group under the auspices of the Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative), and helped found a pre-medical society (MedX) based on encouraging the kind of well-rounded approach to preparation for medical school that he has himself exemplified. And even beyond Penn Vivek has had a significant impact, through his voluntary work with local immigrant families, and two internships – one at Cambridge University in the UK where he studied drug discovery productivity on a summer Thouron Award, and another at the Aravind Hospital in Tamil Nadu, India where he conducted health services research. Vivek’s research, at Penn and beyond, has centered on analyzing quantitative data in a rigorous and skeptical—but still idealistic—manner, in a way that has allowed him to rewrite assumptions and narratives that have governed approaches to problems. After graduating, Vivek’s next step is to do research in the laboratory of Dr. Celeste Simon of Penn’s Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute before applying to medical school.

Andrew Hong

Andy was cited by his classmates as being a particularly helpful resource to them during his senior year Capstone course—and indeed he’s been an energetic community-builder throughout his time in LSM. He’s proved himself an ambitious and very able student, and his curiosity and willingness to try new things have been valued attributes both outside and inside the classroom. Even before he came to LSM, Andy filed a patent for a device that warns blind users of overhanging obstacles for which he has raised funds for its development. At Penn, Andy has collaborated with graduate students in working with the Wharton Small Business Development Center in the Commercialization Acceleration Program, and done research with the Department of Bioinformatics at the University of Pennsylvania. Beyond Penn, while in LSM, Andy interned with Shire Pharmaceuticals Human Genetic Therapies, serving as a clinical trial coordinator, and then most recently as an Associate Consultant in the Life Sciences division of Simon-Kucher & Partners. After graduation, Andy will return to consulting as an Analyst with Huron Life Sciences.

Tess Michaels

Tess has proved herself remarkable as a student and, already, as an entrepreneur—and she has not only started up a company (with social good in mind), but brought her sharp and original mind to bear on improving the LSM and the Penn experience for her fellow students. Her ideas to improve the educational experiences at Penn were recognized with the Wharton Dean's Award for Innovation. As a freshman she was elected as a VP of the Class of 2015, and she later served as the EVP of Wharton Finance Club, and the President of the Biotech Society. As the sole winner of the Clarkston Scholarship, she represented LSM and Penn in Pennsylvania BIO events and participated in research projects in various labs. As a sophomore she launched SOCEANA, a social good startup that brought together corporations, non-profits, philanthropists and volunteers to collaborate using “Philas,” a novel social currency. She was honored by the UN Foundation as a Global Woman Entrepreneur to Watch, as part of its Women’s Entrepreneurship Day celebration, and as a result of her appearance in D.C., she was invited by an Editor to write a column in Washington Post. Tess plans to do healthcare investment banking at Goldman Sachs, and subsequently major in healthcare strategy at Harvard Business School. Dr. Steven Nichtberger said of her: “Tess is truly a natural entrepreneur. She is an outstanding example of what is possible when you are passionate about an idea and willing to make a commitment of time and energy. Her ability to motivate companies, non-profits, philanthropists and others to collaborate around SOCEANA is a testament to her leadership and vision.”

Nuvid Bhuiyan

Nuvid, who graduates with an impressive academic record, worked on the Penn synthetic biology research team that won a silver medal in the North American International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition. She was also on the team that won 2nd place in the Wharton Business Plan Competition for a healthcare startup based on an idea for an online doctor's office to connect hospitals to underserved patient populations including those who live in rural areas and the elderly. In addition, Nuvid served as consultant for Penn's Commercialization Acceleration Program, as Program Manager of the Wharton Social Impact/Urban Nutrition Initiative, promoting health and nutrition in West Philadelphia communities, and as Editor-In-Chief of the undergraduate biomedical journal Synapse. Nuvid completed her science internship at Sanofi-Aventis in Paris, and her business internship in healthcare investment banking at Goldman Sachs, where she is returning after graduation.

Dan Newman

Dan has indeed demonstrated extraordinary academic achievement in his Biology and Strategic Management degrees. His leadership qualities have made themselves felt not only through a standout performance with his team in the LSM Capstone course, but also in his serving as a leader with the student events committee here in LSM. Professionally, Dan interned in Clinical Project Management and Operations with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, performing a variety of analyses of clinical trials and costs for various drugs. He interned too with the Joint BioEnergy Institute in California, where he worked in the lab optimizing a high-throughput plasmid cloning procedure and did other work related to the development of biofuels. His independent study research at HUP was in molecular oncology, centered on melanoma. Extra-curricularly, Dan also served as President the last two years for the Penn Ski and Snowboard Team, organizing weekly ski trips in season, and, of course, introducing innovations that improved the management of the organization. He's also used his talent as a presenter in the service of his school as a Wharton Ambassador.

Stanley Lim

Though the program has very rigorous requirements, Stanley graduated early from LSM and submatriculated into the Master's in Biotechnology program at SEAS. While in LSM, he accumulated various experience in multiple areas of the healthcare industry. For his science internship at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Stanley undertook protein crystallography for early drug discovery. Subsequently, Stanley worked at BioAdvance, a biotech VC, to screen start-ups and assist portfolio companies. He is currently engaged in a medical device start-up. Stanley has continued to mentor LSM's younger students, serving as a TA for the LSM Capstone and Proseminar courses.

Meera Ragavan

A co-founder of Synapse, Penn’s first student-run health care publication, Meera also served as its Executive Vice-President and played a key role in getting corporate sponsorship and funding for Synapse’s early issues. She also is the co-author of two publications that came out the research she conducted with Dr. Evan Fieldston at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, examining issues in patient flow and hospital admissions patterns. In August 2012, Meera will be starting medical school at Stanford University.

Andrew Ettenger

Upon graduating from LSM, Andrew co-founded SMA Partners, a company that, in response to new regulations in Chile to promote the growth of its biotechnology sector, aimed help startup ventures find funding and licensing opportunities in the U.S. Currently, while continuing to work with a Chilean company developing a new treament for metastatic melanoma, Andrew is a research assistant in the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core at Children's Hospital of Boston and plans to pursue a PhD in the biological sciences.