Rama Alhariri moved from Dubai to Baltimore after a listlessly virtual period, and was determined to integrate dynamically and adventurously into a new environment amid high academic demands. One of Rama’s most spontaneous activities in Baltimore has been a Tough Mudder race.
Akshaya Annapragada is a third year M.D./Ph.D. student who has lived in five U.S. states (California, Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts, and Maryland). She is passionate about health literacy, the intersections between mathematics and medicine, and exploring Baltimore’s excellent food scene.
Riley Bannon's non-scientific passions include peanut butter, theology, sports, and harboring useless pop culture facts in her brain. If you have questions about crunchy versus smooth, Catholic social teaching, the Patriots, or any past or current Bachelor contestant, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Angelica Camilo is a Ph.D. pharmacology student who also enjoys writing, embroidering and watching reality TV. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, she is very passionate about empowering women from marginalized communities to thrive in all environments.
Chenggang Chen is a postdoc who likes traveling alone. He went to Pyongyang, North Korea, by train from his home in northeastern China and to Kabul by taxi from Dushanbe, Tajikistan. He even took the world’s longest train journey (5,772 miles) across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok.
Charlotte Fare is a postdoctoral researcher who studies amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Outside of the lab, she enjoys solving crosswords, hiking, photography and spotting window kitties around Baltimore and beyond
Maria Fazal is a second-year M.D. student who loves art, dinosaurs, and trash TV. She recently adopted a kitten named Clyde and is well on her way to becoming a crazy cat lady.
Meher Kalkat is a full-time reality TV consumer, karaoke master and unabashed fiend for cookies and cream ice cream. In her free time, she is also a first-year medical student and connoisseur of all things fuzzy and warm (especially as she faces new Baltimore winters).
Jeong Jun Kim is an expert Korean cook and a novice in-line skater. He can often be found biking to the Homewood campus on a creaky bike or eating Halal food truck takeout on the quad.
Jack Loftus is originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has a background working in the harm-reduction world as an addiction treatment counselor. He has always loved movies, good stories and characters, and live music. In his spare time, he is often trying new recipes or cooking something from scratch.
Daniel Olshvang crossed continents from Israel to the U.S. to pursue his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. With a foundation in the biomedical industry, he’s now crafting innovative paths in AI research. Beyond the lab, you’ll find him harmonizing his passion for music, dissecting cinema narratives and sculpting a healthy lifestyle.
Born and raised in Southeast Florida, Palak Patel is feeling warmer than ever in her new Baltimore home as she begins medical school. As a theatre lover, world traveler, adventure seeker, Gators fan, and birthday cake ice cream fanatic, she has defined herself by her experiences.
Greg Pommier is a second-year medical student who grew up in California. He likes to ask everyone he meets what their go-to trivia categories would be. His are Sichuan recipes, hikes in the French Alps, minutiae of the Three-Body Problem trilogy and embarrassing moments in Baltimore politics.
Outside of the lab, Holly Anne Robinson can be found rock climbing, playing Stardew Valley or searching for the best coffee shop in the city.
Fatemeh Shojaeian studied mathematics in high school, and her goal was to be a computer programmer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, she ended up studying medicine to be a surgeon-scientist and to work on the front line of the cancer battlefield. She enjoys being unpredictable.
Whitney Stuard Sambhariya is a PGY-1 in ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. She obtained her M.D./Ph.D. at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, where she also grew up before moving across the country for residency. Outside of working to survive residency, she is an avid marathon runner and coffee lover.
Chi Mai Trinh is a medical student in the class of 2025. Her nonmedicine-related interests include reading in coffee shops, watching cooking videos without ever trying any of the recipes and walking in the rain. Her medical interests (as of now) include women’s health and interventional radiology.
Luke Tomasovic is a second-year M.D./Ph.D. student interested in biomedical engineering and immunology. He spends most of his time running, whether it be away from his responsibilities or through the streets of Baltimore.
Growing up in a small town in China, Hanghang Wang taught herself English at age 11. She came to the U.S. to attend a small liberal arts college. Hanghang obtained a Ph.D. during general surgery residency, so she is the last person in training in her medical school and residency class.
Daniel Zheng graduated from the University of Maryland (UM) in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in cell biology and genetics, with minors in philosophy and health humanities. He was also a member of the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House at UM. In 2023, he obtained a master’s degree in medical humanities and bioethics from Northwestern University. Zheng enjoys concerts, art museums, playing instruments (piano, violin and cello), tennis and hiking.