P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans

Yifan Xu is a practicing anesthesiologist at Northwest Permanente. She graduated with MD and PhD degrees from the Cornell/Rockefeller University/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional program. Born in Beijing, Yifan lived with her grandparents for two years while her parents established themselves in the United States. She joined them when she was six and the family eventually settled in Eden Prairie, MN. 

Yifan was admitted to Duke University, where she won undergraduate scholarships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation. She graduated cum laude in biology and visual arts. While at Duke, she founded and served as editor and graphic designer for an undergraduate journal that published work on mind, brain, and behavioral research. 

Yifan's Ph.D. research focused on finding ways to modulate pain circuits so that their signals can temper the perception of pain. Additionally, she worked on clinical chronic pain research projects at New York Presbyterian Hospital. She completed her residency in Anesthesiology at Oregon Health and Science University, where she did a Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) Funded Fellowship in how microvascular perfusion may affect stroke outcomes.