Research was, and still is, incredibly special and important to the lives of all of our mentors. All iRI mentors are students at top universities who competed and won at the nation's top science competitions not too long ago, making them the perfect fit to guide iRI students on their journey to scientific research success. Our mentors are so excited to work alongside Dr. McCalla to train our talented and ambitious students this summer! *Mentors vary from year to year based upon the interests of student applicants and mentor availability. Below is a sampling of previous mentors at the iResearch Institute.
Grace Hu
Stanford '21
Materials Science & Biotechnology
- U.S. Presidential Scholar
- Researcher at Stanford's world-famous Prakash Lab
- ISEF 1st Place (2016) / 2nd Place (2017) in Materials Science
- Regeneron STS Scholar
- Siemens Competition Semifinalist
Madhav Subramanian
Washington University in St. Louis '23
Cellular / Molecular Biology
- Regeneron STS Finalist
- ISEF 1st Place in Cellular and Molecular Biology (2019)
- 1st Place Award from Ashtavadhani Vidwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty Foundation
- Published in Science Translational Medicine
Anjali Chadha
MIT '23
Bioengineering
- ISEF Finalist (2018, 2019)
- Regeneron STS Finalist
- Founder of Empowered Inc.
- Principal Subject of Science Fair, a National Geographic film
Kendra Zhang
Columbia '22
Biology & Economics
- ISEF Best in Category in Energy (2017)
- Regeneron STS Scholar
- Siemens Competition Semifinalist
- JSHS National 3rd Place in Chemistry
- Featured on The Today Show for HS research
Swati Madankumar
Barnard College '22
Medicine, Literature, and Society
- Author of basic science research studies accepted in Magnesium Research (2020) and published in American Journal of Physiology (2017)
- Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar (2018)
- Performed cancer research at the Tisch Cancer Institute (2019) and Feinstein Institute (2016-2017)
Dia Shah
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ‘23
Biology - Accelerated BS/MD Program
- Regeneron STS Scholar
- Toshiba Exploravision 2nd place Nationally
- Focused Ultrasound Foundation Global Scholar Award
- Abstract accepted to present research at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation Annual Symposium
Leo Lo
Columbia '22
Physics
- Regeneron STS Finalist
- USA Physics Olympiad Gold Medalist (top 50 nationally)
- ISEF 3rd Place in Physics (2018)
- Co-author of journal article in Applied Physics Letters
Rishi Shah
MIT '20
Neuroscience
- US Army Cyber Operations Officer
- Intel STS Finalist
- ISEF Finalist (2016)
- Co-author of proceedings entry at Conference on Information Systems Applied Research
Vivian Utti
Cornell '19
Computational Biology and Computer Information Science
- Data Science and Strategy at Palantir
- Former Immunomics Researcher at Microsoft
- Former Bioinformatics fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Published in Nucleic Acids Research
Sophia Ladyzhets
Columbia '22
Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering
- Recipient of Robert D. Lilley Award for Socially Responsible Engineering (2020)
- Connecticut JSHS Finalist
- Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering Honoree
- First author of journal article
Marc Huo
Stanford '22
Biomedical Computation
- Regeneron STS Scholar
- ISEF 1st Place in Cellular and Molecular Biology
- Co-author of journal article in Advanced Materials
David Xu
Columbia '23
Computer Engineering
- Regeneron STS Scholar
- ISEF Finalist
- New York JSHS National Delegate
- VEX Robotics World Championship Finalist
