Throughout each quarter, we collect various accomplishments—from awards and appearances to publications and presentations and more—from Pritzker students to highlight and promote their outstanding work to the rest of the community.
Submit your own achievements for our next quarterly round up of student accomplishments through this page.
If you have an upcoming event, such as a media appearance or panel discussion, submit the information in advance so we might be able to help promote your participation in the event. You can also submit your peers' accomplishments, though we will seek their permission before publishing or promoting them.
Winter 2026 Student Accomplishments:
At the American Muslim Medical Student Association Conference, Azeem Saifee, M1, and Ibrahim Khalil, M1, placed second in the Overall Best Poster category, and Zaynab Al-Rashed, M2, placed third. Faiza Shaik, M1, received a Community Builder Award.
Aishwarya Atmakuri, M3, presented a poster titled "Deep spatial analysis of the tumor-immune interface in localized prostate cancer" at the Genitourinary ASCO Symposium in San Francisco. She also presented a poster titled "patial Characterization of the Immune Microenvironment of Localized Prostate Cancer Reveals an Immunogenic Subset of High-Risk Tumors" at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting in National Harbor, MD. She was mentored on both projects by Akash Patnaik, MD, PhD.
Isaiah Brown, M4, received the 2026 Excellence in Public Health Award from U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Physicians Professional Advisory Committee.
Alex Burdzy, M2, was selected to be a 2026-2027 Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellow. He will be working to improve health literacy on Chicago's South Side by delivering health education workshops in community settings while expanding class curriculum to all six of Pritzker's student-run free clinics. He is being mentored on the project by Wei Wei Lee, MD.
Sofia Carozza, M1, published a first-author essay titled “Neurology of social graces in patients with language deficits” in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, proposing a new clinical term, “social graces,” to describe the preserved ability of patients with aphasia to engage in social exchanges like greetings and pleasantries. Read the full paper here. Sofia also had a letter to the editor published in the Chicago Sun-Times offering her criticism of Illinois’ “End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act.” Read the letter here.
Austin Huang, M4, published a first-author paper titled “Focused and automatic subtypes of skin picking disorder” in CNS Spectrums. The project originated in the Pritzker Summer Research Program and Scholarship and Discovery under the mentorship of Jon Grant, MD.
Rowan Hussein, M4, published a first-author paper titled “Advancing healthcare AI governance through a comprehensive maturity model based on systematic review” in Nature Partner Journal (NPJ) Digital Medicine. She was mentored on the project by Brett Beaulieu-Jones, PhD, and Anna Zink, PhD.
Lauren Kang, M4, was elected as national Pre-Health Director of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) and as Vice President of the new Chicago chapter of the Korean American Medical Student Association (KAMSA).
Alp Koksal, M2, published an op-ed titled “AI agents in healthcare: What they say when we aren’t listening” on KevinMD examining how AI agents discuss and view human health on an AI agent-only platform. Read the op-ed here.
Tanaya Kollipara, M1, was selected to be a 2026-2027 Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellow, through which she will work with Mary Kate Erdman, MD, to develop a community-based initiative delivering culturally competent bone health education (including menopause-related risk), low-burden/low-cost fall and fragility fracture prevention strategies, and primary care engagement pathways for underserved older adults in Chicago.
Ishaan Kumar, M2, was selected as a first prize winner in the 2026 Alpha Omega Alpha Helen H. Glaser Student Essay Competition. His essay “The Moral Urgency of Street Medicine” will be published in an upcoming edition of The Pharos.
James Li, M2, published a first-author paper titled “Improved polygenic risk prediction models for breast cancer subtypes in women of African ancestry” in Nature Genetics. Read the full paper here.
Bernadette Miao, MSTP, was re-elected to the National Executive Board of the American Physician Scientists Association (APSA) for the 2026-2027 academic year. She will continue to chair the National Partnerships Committee. As the Partnerships Chair in 2025-2026, Bernadette led several initiatives including chairing the inaugural APSA Three Minute Thesis Competition.
Armin Pazooki, M1, published an op-ed titled “Patients still face unexpected ambulance bills 4 years after the No Surprises Act took effect” in the Chicago Tribune. Read the op-ed here (or via UChicago Libraries). He also published an op-ed titled “Why PBM transparency rules aren’t enough to lower drug prices” on KevinMD. Read that op-ed here. Armin later published a third op-ed title “Persian new year of Nowruz endures, despite tumult for Iranians” in the Chicago Tribune. Read the op-ed here (or via UChicago Libraries).
The Pritzker Co-Ed Indoor Soccer and Co-Ed Basketball intramural teams both won winter quarter championships. The men’s intramural indoor soccer and women’s intramural basketball teams both reached the finals of their leagues and earned second place finishes overall.
Summer Reyes, M3, published a first-author paper titled “Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and school stock inhaler utilization in a statewide program” in Frontiers in Public Health. This project originated in the Summer Research Program under the mentorship of Anna Volerman, MD. Read the paper here. Summer will also present a poster on her research "Care Coordination and Communication Between K-12 Schools and Health Systems: A Scoping Review of Barriers and Successful Strategies" at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in Boston this month. That project is also under the mentorship of Dr. Volerman.
Sahil Sethi, M4, published a first-author paper titled “Prototype Learning to Create Refined Interpretable Digital Phenotypes from ECGs” in Biocomputing 2026. Read the paper here. He also gave an oral podium presentation on the paper at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB), an international biocomputing conference held on the Big Island of Hawaii with the support of the PSB NIH National Library of Medicine Travel Award.
Rishi Sharma, M2, published a paper titled “Deep learning discriminates thymic epithelial tumors' histological subtypes using digital pathology” in Annals of Oncology. Read the full paper here.
Nora Spadoni, M4, published a first-author paper titled “Beliefs and Behaviors Related to Physical Activity in Black Girls With Asthma” in Pediatric Pulmonology. She was mentored on the project by Anna Volerman, MD. Read the paper here.
Gabrielle Sudilovsky, M4, presented her research titled “The Risks of Electronic Medical Record Documentation in a Post-Dobbs America” as an oral presentation at the Reproductive Ethics Conference hosted by the Hastings Center for Bioethics. She also had projects accepted for oral presentation at the MacLean Center Conference on Clinical Medical Ethics (“The Electronic Medical Record: The Biography the Patient Cannot Edit”) and poster presentation at the International Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation (“Exploring Reproductive Justice and Patient Safety in an Interconnected Era”). She was mentored on the projects by Baddr Shakhsheer, MD, Julie Chor, MD, and Ursula Francis, JD, PhD, MSc. Gabrielle also published a literature review titled “Interventions and Perinatal Outcomes Associated With Recipient Twin Cardiomyopathy in the Setting of Twin-To-Twin Transfusion Syndrome: A Systematic Review” in Prenatal Diagnosis. She was mentored on the project by Ashish Premkumar, MD, PhD. Read the paper here.
Michael Wakeman, M2, published a first-author paper title “A tale of two apps: preliminary usability testing of smoking cessation mobile applications among individuals with low socioeconomic status who smoke cigarettes” in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. The research originated from his gap year research at the NIH. Read the paper here. His paper originated from my bridge year at the NIH. Michael will also be presenting his Pritzker Summer Research Program project “Reach and Effectiveness of a Population-Based, Opt-Out Cessation Program for Cancer Patients Who Smoke” at the Annual Conference for the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Chicago this month.
Claire Wild, M4, had an abstract titled “Microbiome modulation via dietary prehabilitation to promote anastomotic healing following colorectal cancer surgery: A pilot study” accepted for oral presentation at 2026 Digestive Diseases Week, which takes place in Chicago this May.