Image: Gretchen Ertl
1. The Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program has faced significant challenges this year with the sudden loss of federal training grants, but has also received extraordinary generosity from alumni and supporters. What has most inspired you about the community’s response?
What inspired me most was the incredible way our alumni, faculty, and friends immediately rallied around our students. In just a matter of weeks, more than 125 donors contributed over $8.5 million, including two alumni who offered matching gifts that doubled the impact of every graduate’s contribution, collectively ensuring our students could continue their training without interruption. The message was loud and clear: This community believes in the power of physician-scientists to transform health care and will always stand behind the next generation of leaders.
2. Physician-scientists occupy a unique position at the intersection of patient care and scientific discovery. In your experience, what qualities or experiences best prepare students to thrive as future leaders in medicine and research?
The students who thrive are those who embrace both sides of their training. They let their clinical encounters spark scientific ideas and let their research sharpen the way they care for patients. Curiosity, empathy, creativity, and the confidence to ask bold questions are the traits that carry them forward. When students learn to see every patient as a teacher and every experiment as a step toward better human health, they are already on the path to true impact.
3. Community and mentorship are central to the program’s mission. How do you and your colleagues foster a sense of belonging and resilience among students, especially during times of uncertainty or transition?
We build community with intention, through mentorship at every level, shared academic and social traditions, and a culture where students know they are supported not just academically, but also personally. Whether it’s our legendary annual retreat, grand rounds, or simply a meal where first-years sit beside students preparing to graduate, we make sure everyone feels part of something larger than themselves. When students feel known, valued, and supported, resilience and belonging grow naturally, as do joy and fulfillment.
4. The program marked its 50th anniversary in 2024. As you look to the future of the program, what message would you most like to share with donors about the importance of their support and the impact they make on the future of medical innovation?
Donors to this program are not only supporting an outstanding education—they are also helping launch discoveries, cures, technologies, and public-health breakthroughs that will shape medicine for decades to come. Every gift gives our supremely talented students the freedom to pursue big questions, join world-class labs, and commit fully to the dual calling of doctor and scientist. The next 50 years will be defined by ideas we haven’t yet imagined, and they will be made possible because people like you believed in the promise of these budding physician-scientists.
Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program
The Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program's mission is to train the next generation of physician-scientist leaders, who represent a rich spectrum of clinical disciplines and research areas from basic and translational sciences to bioengineering to the social sciences.