Suhas Rao – Suhas is an MD/PhD student at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He will continue to pursue his PhD in quantitative biology at Stanford. Suhas is from Massachusetts.

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering America’s most brilliant minds, today announced the 2017 recipients of the prestigious Hertz Fellowship. The 12 newest Hertz Fellows were chosen from more than 700 applicants interested in pursuing graduate work in applied physical and biological sciences, mathematics and engineering. The Hertz Foundation is the only organization in the United States that supports PhD candidates for a full five years at one of the Foundation’s numerous partner institutions and grants students total research freedom, ensuring that each Fellow is able to pursue the most compelling, cutting-edge research.

“The 2017 Fellow class is among the best and brightest we’ve ever seen, and we are proud to welcome them to the Hertz Community,” said Robbee Baker Kosak, president, The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. “Hertz Fellows are developing solutions to issues of worldwide importance, from helping solve global health crises to addressing climate change and energy consumption. We look forward to seeing our new Fellows make similarly outstanding contributions as they pursue their research in the coming years.”

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation is the legacy of John Hertz, a Hungarian immigrant who made his fortune by capitalizing on the entrepreneurship prospects in the budding automotive industry. He believed that innovative and entrepreneurial solutions were vital to the strength, security and prosperity of our nation—and began the Foundation to support exceptionally talented students expected to have the greatest impact on the world’s problems. Today, the Hertz Fellow community is one of the most influential groups of leaders, innovators, engineers, mathematicians and scientists in the American corporate, university, national laboratory and military sectors.

The Hertz Foundation’s 2017 Fellows currently attend leading U.S. universities and will pursue their PhD work at some of America’s most prestigious universities.