P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to engineers of Palestinian and Jordanian descent, Omar grew up with strong commitments to science, engineering, and Islam. In high school he won a regional Intel Science and Engineering Fair and 4th place at the international level.

Omar went on to MIT where he was a Henry Ford and a Goldwater Scholar. He earned a perfect 5.0 GPA as a mechanical and bio-engineering major, was editor-in-chief of the MIT Undergraduate Research Journal and co-president of the MIT Bioengineering Society.

Following his freshman year at MIT, Omar worked with an NIH research team on the design of a vaccine based on engineered nanoparticles. In subsequent nanoparticle research he helped design sensitive tests for cancer and liver fibrosis, which led to co-authorship of a paper in Nature Biotechnology and presentations at scientific conferences.

Omar was extensively involved in the development of TIMtalks, a forum for MIT undergraduates that addresses personal setbacks. He also worked at Flagship Ventures on developing an early stage company leveraging the human microbiome for new therapies.

Omar is a candidate for MD and Ph.D. degrees in the Harvard/MIT MD/PhD program. His research focuses on cell signaling network models that will yield new biological insights and better therapies.