The purpose of the Pritzker Institute Fellowship Program is to facilitate stable financial support for highly qualified Illinois Tech doctoral students pursuing thesis work in the field of Biomedical Science or Biomedical Engineering. The fellowship aims to attract, recognize and assist superb students with strong academic credentials and demonstrated potential for meritorious research whose doctoral thesis will be supported through funded research focused on clinical translation of biomedical science and engineering of Illinois Tech faculty mentor(s).
Pritzker Fellows are recommended by faculty. The Pritzker Fellowship Application includes eligibility and application guidelines.
Current Pritzker Fellows
2022
Ruth Negru
Ph.D. Candidate
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Marcella Vaicik
Ruth Negru received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and M.A.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2020 from Illinois Institute of Technology. Her empathy toward those suffering due to unmet needs and unreached areas within the medical field has driven her passion for biomedical research, from vision strain therapy to MRI phantoms, peritonitis treatment, and wound healing. Ruth is now designing a long-term intracellular drug delivery system using polymeric nanoparticles for long-term gene silencing. This Ph.D. work, under the advisement of Marcella Vaicik, could prove to be applicable beyond their goal of obesity treatment, as a long-term intracellular drug delivery system would be ground-breaking in disease therapy. These steps toward a brighter future would not be possible without the support of the Pritzker Fellowship Program.
Jennifer Sorescu
Ph.D. Candidate
Department: Biology
Advisor: Associate Professor of Biology Oscar Juarez and Robert E. Frey, Jr. Endowed Chair in Chemistry David Minh
Jennifer Sorescu graduated from Cornell College with a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Prior to pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Biology at Illinois Tech, she performed preclinical research at IIT Research Institute, with a focus on molecular techniques, which piqued her interest in the drug design process. Her doctoral thesis work under the advisorship of Juarez and Minh, supported through the Pritzker Fellowship, focuses on drug discovery targeting metabolic enzymes in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
2021
Rayan Abdulhadi
Ph.D. Candidate
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Professor of Biomedical Engineering Georgia Papavasiliou
Rayan completed her B.S. degree in 2020 with a focus on biophysics. Prior to coming to Illinois Tech, she conducted summer research at the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences where she gained experience in the computational and experimental analysis of carbon ion therapy. She then joined the Papavasilou and Vaicik lab in the fall of 2020. Her doctoral thesis work, supported through the Pritzker Fellowship Program, focuses on engineering 3D scaffolds of mesenchymal stem cells with highly controllable gradients in biochemical composition to aid in the restoration of the bone/cartilage interface.
2019
Jacob Goes
Ph.D. Candidate
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Professor of Biomedical Engineering Keigo Kawaji
I received my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Northern Illinois University in 2018. I then joined the Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. Program at Illinois Institute of Technology and, have been working in Keigo Kawaji’s lab. I will be contributing to the lab’s overall goals of addressing challenges associated with heart disease, neurovascular stroke, and diabetes. Through the Pritzker Fellowship, my training will include Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems development, as well as, the design and, validation of novel instrumentation applications using mathematical approaches including methods incorporating artificial intelligence.