ANTHONY ROMEO, M.D.

Double Board Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon, Shoulder and Elbow Specialist

Anthony Romeo, M.D. is one of the nation’s leading orthopedic surgeons specializing in the management and surgical treatment of shoulder and elbow conditions. His state-of-the-art practice employs minimally invasive arthroscopic techniques to accelerate the recovery process for a range of challenging conditions. Dr. Romeo has lectured extensively on advanced surgical techniques to surgeons at both national and international forums. He is also a renowned scholar who has authored over 450 peer-reviewed journal articles and 35 chapters in orthopedic textbooks.

Dr. Mukesh K. Jain

Dean, Brown University

School of Medicine

A physician-scientist, Dean Jain is internationally recognized for studies that established a central role for Kruppel-like factors, a family of DNA transcription factors, in cardiovascular biology, innate immunity, and metabolism. Prior to his appointment at Brown, he oversaw basic and clinical research, a portfolio of programs with robust federal and non-federal annual research funding, more than 200 full-time staff, and one of the nation’s largest graduate medical education programs, with over 1,100 residents and fellows.

Nationally, Jain’s clinical and academic contributions have been recognized through numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation — an organization for which he is a past president— the Association of American Physicians, and the Association of University Cardiologists. In 2017, Jain and five colleagues (including two Nobel laureates) founded the Physician-Scientist Support Foundation, a nonprofit that strives to build a sustainable and diverse physician-scientist workforce through financial and research support for fundamental discoveries that improve human health.

SYLVIA OWUSU-ANSAH, M.D, M.P.H., FAAP

EMS Medical Director, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine

Medical Adviser on the medical television drama, "The Pitt"

Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is a board-certified pediatrician and a pediatric emergency medicine physician, as well as an EMS physician. In addition to her clinical roles, she serves as the EMS Medical Director and the Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. 

Dr. Owusu-Ansah is dedicated to community engagement. Within two years, she taught CPR to over 2,000 individuals, including Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who is the city's first Black mayor, as well as all Division I Pitt athletic teams. Notably, a record-breaking soccer goalie saved her father's life using the CPR skills she learned through this initiative. She has also expanded her efforts globally, teaching CPR to schoolchildren in Ghana and West Africa.

Additionally, Dr. Owusu-Ansah co-leads a middle school program that exposes underserved students to healthcare and lifesaving skills, including CPR, while mentoring medical students of color. As the CEO and co-founder of Akoma United, a nonprofit organization, she aims to equip underserved communities with lifesaving skills, which includes a global initiative focused on Ghana. Furthermore, she is currently working on her book and is the creator and co-owner of a short film titled "In Good Hands," which is now a semi-finalist for the New York Independent Film Festival 2025. She also served as an advisor for the first season of the hit medical drama series "The Pitt," which is streaming on MAX.

CHARLES M. RICE, Ph.D.

Rockefeller University, Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor in Virology

2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

2016 Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award

National Academy of Medicine

National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Charles M. Rice is the Head of the Laboratory for Virology and Infectious Disease at the Rockefeller University. He is a prominent figure in research on members of the Flaviviridae, including the hepatitis C virus. Dr. Rice received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis, in 1974 and earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1981. From 1986-2000, Dr. Rice was a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Rice has co-authored over 400 articles in the field of virology, serves as a reviewer for numerous journals, is a past President of the American Society for Virology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the M. W. Beijernick, Dautrebande, Robert Koch, InBev Baillet-Latour prizes, and the Lasker-Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award.

KATALIN KARIKÓ, PH.D.

University of Pennsylvania, Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, 

Perelman School of Medicine

2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Katalin Karikó is a professor at her alma mater, University of Szeged, Hungary, and adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked for 24 years. She is a former senior vice president at BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany, where she worked from 2013 to 2022. For four decades, her research has focused on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA

for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA, which widened the therapeutic potential of mRNA.

Her patents, co-invented with Drew Weissman on nucleoside-modified uridines in mRNA, were used to create the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna to fight the pandemic. For her achievements, she received many prestigious awards, including the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her daughter, Susan Francia, is a 2-time Olympic Champion.

Mike Koenigs

Generative Artificial Intelligence Pioneer and Teacher

Mike Koenigs is an entrepreneur, 17-time #1 Bestselling author, speaker, interactive online personality and influencer. He is an expert in the growing field of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and has been teaching top professionals how to effectively use these new tools.

He began his journey into the world of technology at a young age, fueled by a fascination with computers and innovation. He pursued his passion by studying computer science and business at the University of Minnesota. After completing his education, Koenigs embarked on a diverse career path that included stints in software development, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Throughout his career, Koenigs has been at the forefront of technological innovation, constantly exploring new ways to harness the power of AI and automation to drive business success. He has authored books and courses on topics ranging from marketing automation to productivity optimization, sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world.

Heman Bekele

TIME's 2024 Kid of the Year

Winner of the 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge

As a fifteen-year-old, Heman Bekele was named TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year for his groundbreaking skin cancer prevention and treatment work.

Born in Ethiopia, he immigrated to the US as a four-year-old with his family. Heman’s memories of people working under the glaring sun, plus the dramatic differences in skin cancer survival rates, were his driving forces. He developed a skin cancer-treating soap that encourages dendritic cells to boost their immune responses, thereby protecting the skin as an immunotherapeutic, a promising approach to early-stage cancer detection and treatment.

As a previous winner of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, Heman is working with scientists to conduct clinical trials on mice and is on his way to securing a patent.

Leanne Fan

Winner of the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge

Leanne Fan invented the Finsen Headphones, a prototype that detects and treats mid-ear infections using acoustic reflectometry, machine learning, and phototherapy.

A high schooler from San Diego, Fan was named America’s Top Young Scientist by 3M and Discovery Education in 2022 and rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell. She is a finalist in the 2024 Regeneron ISEF and spoke in a health technology panel at the Aspen Ideas Health Festival, meeting influential figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Fan strives to provide a low cost and non-medicinal ear infection treatment in place of antibiotics for kids to prevent hearing loss, control the infection before surgery is needed, and reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance. She also encourages science and art in her community and in younger children by promoting her local science fair and teaching children science at science expos.

Currently, Fan is researching the use of photobiomodulation in simulated microgravity to induce and accelerate wound healing during long term space travel in an effort to provide affordable wound care on Earth and in space.

Carl June, M.D.

The Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Director, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, Perelman School of Medicine Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Carl June maintains a research laboratory that studies various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infection.

In 2011, his research team published findings detailing a new therapy in which patients with refractory and relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells.

The June laboratory has published more than >500 publications, and has a google scholar h-index of 175 with >100,000 citations. He currently serves as the Richard W. Vague Professor in immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and as the Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including his election into the National Academies of Medicine and Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Nicholas Schiff, M.D.

Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University

Dr. Schiff is a physician-scientist trained in quantitative systems neuroscience with broad interests in the area of neurological disorders of consciousness. His research bridges basic neuroscience and clinical investigative studies of the pathophysiology of impaired consciousness, the neurophysiological mechanisms of arousal regulation, and the effects of deep brain electrical stimulation techniques on forebrain integration.

He is Director of the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuromodulation at Weill Cornell where he conducts research examining neurophysiological mechanisms of arousal and forebrain integration as well as clinical studies of the pathophysiology of impaired consciousness.

Dr. Schiff’s research efforts are supported by federal grants from the NIH (with current and past support from NICHD, NINDS, NIMH, and NIDDR), private foundations (Charles A. Dana Foundation, James S. McDonnell Foundation, Jerold B. Katz Foundation), and industry (IntElect Medical).  Among these projects, Dr. Schiff is leading an international, eight center study funded by James S. McDonnell Foundation to develop tools to accurately measure the level of awareness of patients with severe brain injuries.