52 Finalists Named for the 2025 Hertz Fellowships

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation today announced 52 finalists for the 2025 Hertz Fellowships in applied sciences, mathematics and engineering.

Selected from more than 1,000 applicants and representing 27 universities, the finalists advance to a culminating round of interviews for one of the most competitive and coveted doctoral fellowships in the nation. The 2025 class of Hertz Fellows will be announced in May.

“This group exemplifies the collective power of science and technology to solve complex challenges to advance our nation’s research enterprise and national security,” said Derek Haseltine, director of the Hertz Fellowship Program. “These creative thinkers are poised to become leaders across various fields pursuing innovative ideas with the potential for outsized impact.”

Since 1963, the Hertz Foundation has granted fellowships empowering the nation’s most promising young minds in science and technology. Hertz Fellows receive five years of funding, which offers flexibility from the traditional constraints of graduate training and the independence needed to pursue research that tackles some of the most pressing challenges facing our nation and the world. 

The Hertz Fellowship experience continues beyond the initial award to include permanent membership in a multigenerational, intellectual community of peers that includes some of the nation’s most noted science and technology leaders. Fellows are able to deepen their experience through mentorship activities, events and professional development opportunities and networking. These opportunities have led Hertz Fellows to form research collaborations, commercialize technology, and create and invest in early-stage companies together.

The Hertz Foundation is committed to investing in future science and technology leaders who will fuel our nation’s security and economic vitality through life-changing innovations. Achieving these innovations requires bold ideas and relentless drive — qualities that are at the heart of Hertz Fellows. Through a highly rigorous selection process, led by Hertz Fellows Philip Welkhoff, director of the malaria program at the Gates Foundation, and Anna Bershteyn, associate professor of population health at New York University, the Hertz Fellowship selection committee seeks out exemplary candidates poised to continually think bigger and pursue goals that will have a transformational and lasting impact on our society. 

To enhance the Hertz Fellowship experience, the Hertz Foundation partners with influential organizations in science, technology, national security, and philanthropy. In recent years, the foundation has partnered with Gates Foundation, Hertz Corporation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 10x Genomics, and Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group, among other organizations. The Hertz Foundation recently agreed to partnerships with Case Western Reserve University and Texas A&M University, which will offer full financial benefits to Hertz Fellowship Finalists who attend the universities for graduate school, even if the student is not selected as a Hertz Fellow.

Throughout the foundation’s 62-year history of awarding fellowships, 1,305 Hertz Fellows have established a remarkable track record of accomplishments. Their ranks include two Nobel laureates; recipients of 11 Breakthrough Prizes and three MacArthur Foundation “genius awards”; and winners of the Turing Award, the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Technology and the National Medal of Science. In addition, 53 are members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and 37 are fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hertz Fellows hold over 3,000 patents, have founded more than 375 companies and have created hundreds of thousands of science and technology jobs.

2024 Hertz Fellowship Finalists

Finalists are listed with their field of study and most recent university affiliation.

Curtis Althaus
Astrophysics and Chemistry
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Yasa Baig
Quantitative Biology and Bioengineering
Stanford University
Undergrad: Duke University

Jagdeep Bhatia
Computer Science, Robotics and Machine Learning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Adam Boesky
Astrophysics
Harvard University 

Chance Bowman
Bioengineering
University of California, San Francisco
Undergrad: Dartmouth College

Jonah Brenner
Physics
Harvard University

Matthew Caren
Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Suraj Chandran
Chemistry
Columbia University
Undergrad: University of Pennsylvania

Edward Chen
Chemical Engineering
United States Military Academy at West Point

Julie Chen
Developmental and Systems Biology
Stanford University

Maggie Chen
Bioengineering, Genetics
Stanford University
Undergrad: Harvard University

April Cheng
Astrophysics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chu Xin (Cloris) Cheng
Computer Science and Engineering
California Institute of Technology

Soyoun Choi
Mechanical Engineering
Harvard University

Samuel Christian
Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

David Dai
Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Soumyaa Das
Neuroscience
Case Western Reserve University

Stanislav DeLaurentiis
Astronomy
Columbia University
Undergrad: Columbia University

Robert Durall
Molecular Biology
Duke University
Undergrad: University of North Carolina Asheville

James Galante
Genetics
University of Notre Dame

Cade Gordon
Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley
Undergrad: University of California, Berkeley

Anvita Gupta
Computer Science
Stanford University

Yulia Gutierrez
Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco
Undergrad: Northwestern University 

Eliot Hodges
Mathematics
Harvard University

Arav Karighattam
Mathematics
Harvard University

Grace Kim
Aeronautics and Astronautics
Stanford University
Undergrad: Harvard University

John Kuszmaul
Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Undergrad: Yale University

Allison Lam
Biophysics
Stanford University
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Daniel Lesman
Quantitative Biology and Bioengineering
Harvard University
Undergrad: The Ohio State University

Laura Lewis
Computer Science
University of Edinburgh
Undergrad: California Institute of Technology

Miguel Liu-Schiaffini 
Computer Science and Engineering
California Institute of Technology

Benjamin Lou
Mathematics and Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Annabella Macaluso
Computer Science and Engineering
University of California, San Diego
Undergrad: University of California, San Diego

Sreekar Mantena
Quantitative Biology
Harvard Medical School
Undergrad: Harvard University

Nicole McGaa
Aerospace Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tuan Anh Nguyen
Physics
Stanford University

Victor Odouard
Applied and Computational Math
Princeton University
Undergrad: Cornell University

Caleb Painter
Astrophysics
Harvard University

Lillian Petersen
Genetics
Stanford University
Undergrad: Harvard University

Albert Qin
Physics and Neuroscience
Princeton University
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Isabelle Quaye
Computer Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Ananthan Sadagopan
Chemical Biology
Harvard University
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology  

Judd Staples
Physics
Princeton University
Undergrad: Duke University 

Daniel Stauber
Bioengineering
Stanford University

Kenta Suzuki
Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Eric Tao
Neuroscience
University of Pennsylvania

Christopher Tong
Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kenji Walker
Quantitative Biology and Bioengineering
Boston University

Zoe Xi
Mathematics and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology  

Christopher Xu
Mechanical Engineering, Mobile Robotics
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Andre Ye
Computer Science
University of Washington

Gianfranco Yee
Cancer Engineering
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Undergrad: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

About the Hertz Foundation

Founded in 1957, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation accelerates solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, from enhancing national security to improving human health. Through the Hertz Fellowship, the Foundation identifies the nation’s most promising young innovators and disruptors in science and technology, empowering them to become future leaders who keep our country safe and secure. Today, a community of more than 1,300 Hertz Fellows are a powerful, solution-oriented network of our nation’s top scientific minds, working to address complex problems and contributing to the economic vitality of our country. Learn more at hertzfoundation.org.