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The Hertz Foundation declared that it has bestowed fellowships upon eight MIT associates. This esteemed honor grants each recipient five years of funding for doctoral-level research (up to a total of $250,000), providing them with a remarkable degree of autonomy in their graduate pursuits to engage in innovative research.
The MIT-associated award recipients include Matthew Caren ’25; April Qiu Cheng ’24; Arav Karighattam, who will commence his PhD at the Institute this autumn; Benjamin Lou ’25; Isabelle A. Quaye ’22, MNG ’24; Albert Qin ’24; Ananthan Sadagopan ’24; and Gianfranco (Franco) Yee ’24.
“Hertz Fellows epitomize the potential for future scientific advancements, significant engineering triumphs, and intellectual leadership critical for our future,” stated Stephen Fantone, chair of the Hertz Foundation’s board of directors and president and CEO of Optikos Corp., in the announcement. “The latest recipients will lead research teams, occupy leadership roles in our government, and spearhead major corporations and startups that influence our communities and the globe.”
Alongside financial support, fellows gain access to Hertz Foundation programs throughout their existence, which includes events, mentorship, and networking opportunities. They join a community of over 1,300 former Hertz Fellows since the establishment of the fellowship in 1963, who are prominent leaders and scholars across various fields of technology, science, and engineering. Previous fellows have contributed to advancements in areas such as advanced medical therapies, computational systems utilized by billions daily, global defense networks, and the recent deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope.
This year’s MIT awardees are part of a total of 19 Hertz Foundation Fellows chosen from throughout the United States.
Matthew Caren ’25 studied electrical engineering and computer science, mathematics, and music at MIT. His research centers on computational models of vocal communication at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and interpretable real-time machine listening systems at the MIT Music Technology Lab. He spent several summers developing large language model systems and bioinformatics algorithms at Apple and has spent a year researching expressive digital instruments at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He chaired the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Undergraduate Advisory Group, where he led undergraduate committees on interdisciplinary computing AI, and he was a founding member of the MIT Voxel Lab for music and arts technology. Additionally, Caren has invented innovative instruments used by Grammy-winning artists on international stages. He intends to seek a doctorate at Stanford.
April Qiu Cheng ’24 majored in physics at MIT, graduating in a brief three years. Their research specialized in black hole phenomenology, gravitational-wave inference, and leveraging fast radio bursts as a statistical probe into large-scale structures. They have garnered numerous accolades, including an MIT Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award, the MIT Barrett Prize, the Astronaut Scholarship, and the Princeton President’s Fellowship. Cheng has enriched the physics department community by serving as vice president of advocacy for Undergraduate Women in Physics and as the undergraduate representative on the Physics Values Committee. Furthermore, they have engaged in various scientific outreach programs for middle and high school students. Since graduating, they have been a Fulbright Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, studying gravitational-wave cosmology. Cheng will commence a doctorate in astrophysics at Princeton this fall.
Arav Karighattam was home-schooled and, by the age of 14, had completed most undergraduate and graduate courses in physics and mathematics at the University of California at Davis. He graduated from Harvard University in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and will attend MIT to pursue a PhD, also in mathematics. Karighattam is captivated by algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry and seeks to comprehend the mysteries underlying the structure of Diophantine equations’ solutions. He also aims to apply his mathematical expertise to address climate change and biodiversity loss. At a recent conference at MIT titled “Mordell’s Conjecture 100 Years Later,” Karighattam distinguished himself as the youngest presenter among graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members.
Benjamin Lou ’25 graduated from MIT in May with a BS in physics and is eager to explore connections between fundamental truths of the universe. One of his research endeavors utilizes symplectic techniques to comprehend the essence of precision measurements employing quantum states of light. Another project involves geometrically unifying several theorems in quantum mechanics via the Prüfer transformation. For his efforts, Lou received the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. Lou will pursue his doctorate at MIT, where he plans to work on unifying quantum mechanics and gravity, aiming to uncover experimentally verifiable predictions. Living with spinal muscular atrophy, which causes severe physical weakness and renders scratchwork impractical, Lou has cultivated a unique learning approach emphasizing mental visualization. He also co-founded and has actively led the MIT Assistive Technology Club, devoted to empowering individuals with disabilities through innovative technologies. He is currently developing a robotic self-feeding device for those unable to eat independently.
Isabelle A. Quaye ’22, MNG ’24 studied electrical engineering and computer science as an undergraduate at MIT with a minor in economics. She was granted competitive fellowships and scholarships from Hyundai, Intel, D. E. Shaw, and Palantir, and earned the Albert G. Hill Prize, awarded to juniors and seniors demonstrating exceptional academic achievement and contributions to improving the quality of life for underrepresented students at MIT. While obtaining her master’s degree at MIT, she concentrated on theoretical computer science and systems. She is currently a software engineer at Apple, where she continues to build frameworks that harness data intelligence to enhance systems and processes. Quaye also believes in furthering the advancement of science and technology by teaching and has volunteered in summer programs that instruct programming and informatics to high school students in the United States and Ghana.
Albert Qin ’24 majored in physics and mathematics at MIT. He also pursued an interest in biology, researching single-molecule approaches to investigate transcription factor diffusion in living cells and studying the cellular circuits that govern animal development. His dual interests inspire him to find commonality between physics and biological sciences. Motivated by his MIT undergraduate advisors, he aspires to become a teacher and mentor for aspiring young scientists. Qin is currently pursuing a PhD at Princeton University, exploring questions surrounding the behavior of neural networks—both artificial and biological—through a variety of methodologies and principles from physics and neuroscience.
Ananthan Sadagopan ’24 is currently working toward a doctorate in biological and biomedical science at Harvard University, focusing on chemical biology and the creation of new therapeutic strategies for challenging diseases. He earned his BS at MIT in chemistry and biology within three years and led projects characterizing somatic perturbations of X chromosome inactivation in cancer, developing machine learning tools for cancer dependency prediction, employing small molecules for targeted protein relocalization, and establishing a generalizable method to inhibit the most mutated gene in cancer (TP53). He authored publications as the first author in leading journals, such as Cell, during his undergraduate studies. He also holds patents related to his endeavors concerning cancer dependency prediction and targeting TP53. At the Institute, he served as president of the Chemistry Undergraduate Association, garnering both the First-Year and Senior Chemistry Achievement Awards, and was head of the events committee for the MIT Science Olympiad.
Gianfranco (Franco) Yee ’24 majored in biological engineering at MIT, engaging in research at the Manalis Lab on chemical gradients within the gut microenvironment and aiding in the development of a pioneering gut-on-a-chip platform for culturing organoids under such gradients. His senior thesis elaborated on this work by investigating the microbiome, focusing on host-microbe interactions associated with intestinal inflammation and metabolic disorders. Yee additionally pursued a concentration in education at MIT, and he is dedicated to enhancing access to STEM resources in underserved communities. He co-founded Momentum AI, an educational outreach initiative teaching computer science to high school students throughout Greater Boston. The inaugural program reached nearly 100 students and included remote outreach efforts in Ukraine and China. Yee has also collaborated with MIT Amphibious Achievement and the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs. He is currently enrolled at Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School, where he aims to utilize the gut microbiome and immune system to devise cutting-edge therapeutic solutions.
Notable former Hertz Fellows include two Nobel laureates; recipients of 11 Breakthrough Prizes and three MacArthur Foundation “genius awards;” as well as winners of the Turing Award, the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Technology, the National Medal of Science, and the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award. Additionally, 54 are members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and 40 are fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hertz Fellows hold over 3,000 patents, have established more than 375 companies, and have created hundreds of thousands of jobs in science and technology.
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