Shyam Kiran Akula, a 2016 Washington University in St. Louis alum, has been named a 2020 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, a prestigious academic honor for outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing a graduate education in the United States. Akula, of Arcadia, Calif., is the child of Indian immigrants who fled Kuwait during the Gulf War.
Akula was one of 30 students selected from a field of 2,211 applicants. He will receive $90,000 to complete his MD/PhD in neuroscience at Harvard University, where he is conducting research on rare genetic diseases of cortical malformation to understand how specific genes influence normal human brain development.
At Washington University, Akula earned his bachelor’s degree in neurobiology with a minor in psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences. He worked in the laboratory of Joseph Dougherty, associate professor of genetics at the School of Medicine, and was the inaugural recipient of the Quatrano Prize, which is awarded annually for the most creative biology thesis project. He also was a Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement Civic Scholar.