P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans

Mark Aurel Nagy was born in Budapest to a Chinese mother and Hungarian father. Although he immigrated to the United States soon after, Aurel and his siblings spent summers abroad under the care of his extended families while his parents worked full time. Raised by teachers and scientists, Aurel developed a powerful fascination with the sciences early on. After completing his BS with honors in neuroscience and physics at Brown University, Aurel enrolled in the MD/PhD program at Harvard Medical School, supported by the NIH through the Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship. At Harvard, Aurel completed his neuroscience PhD in Professor Michael Greenberg's lab. His dissertation work, published in the journals Nature Neuroscience and Neuron, employed next-generation sequencing-based assays to understand how sensory experience shapes neuronal function. Other work on viral vector engineering from this period resulted in several industry collaborations and patents, including a licensing agreement with an East Coast-based gene therapy start-up. 

Aurel is currently an ophthalmology resident at UCSF. He hopes to become a practicing physician-scientist dedicated to making lasting improvements to patient care through scientific advancement and, as a gay person of color, increase visibility for underrepresented minorities in the sciences and medicine.