P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans

LAUREL YONG-HWA LEE is an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School.

Laurel was born in South Korea and is a naturalized citizen.

Laurel earned a DPhil in immunology at Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She graduated from MIT with degrees in brain and cognitive science and biology.

Laurel led a large-scale study of human immune response against the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in the UK and Vietnam. Her study culminated in a research article in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, of which she is the lead author.

At MIT, she was a varsity rower and was named a Burchard Scholar for excellence in the arts and humanities. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NIH Exceptional Summer Research Award, Glamour magazine's Top 10 College Women of the Year, and USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team. Laurel envisions a career as a physician-scientist.