Physician Mentors for the 2025 CAPD Clinical Research Externship
The five physicians listed below serve as mentors for the 2025 CAPD Clinical Research Externship (CRE). Each physician balances direct patient care with a variety of research projects.
In your CRE application, rank the physicians in order of preference and explain why you are most interested in working with your top 2 choices. (250 words)
If you are interested in the CAPD Clinical Research Externship, you can apply through Handshake here.
Dr. Josh Aronson, MD | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) – Dr. Aronson (MIT ’04, HST MD ‘08) is a neurosurgeon and Director of Epilepsy Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. His lab focuses on mechanisms of learning and memory in human subjects. Dr. Aronson also attended MIT as an undergrad majoring in Course 7 Biology.
Visit Dr. Aronson’s BIDMC profile to learn more
Dr. Marilyn Liang, MD | Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) – Dr. Liang is a dermatologist and Co-Director of the Vascular Anomalies Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Liang conducts laser procedures to address a variety of vascular anomalies including Sturge-Weber Syndrome, Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), and other birthmark types and syndromes. Dr. Liang also attended MIT as an undergrad majoring in Course 7 Biology
Visit Dr. Liang’s BCH profile to learn more
Dr. Elaine Tseng, MD | Univ. of California San Francisco (UCSF) – Dr. Tseng is Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Univ of California San Francisco Medical Center and the co-director of UCSF’s Cardiac Biomechanics Lab. Her clinical expertise includes minimally invasive aortic valve replacement & edge-to-edge repair and multi-arterial coronary artery bypass grafting. Dr. Tseng also attended MIT as an undergrad majoring in Course 7 Biology.
Visit Dr. Tseng’s UCSF profile to learn more. You can also listen to an interview of Dr. Tseng on the Same Surgeon, Different Light podcast here.
*Important: To be paired with Dr. Elaine Tseng, students must be physically located in the San Francisco area during the time of the externship and have access to UCSF. This opportunity requires in-person availability in San Francisco/Bay Area, California.
Alexander Nagrebetsky, M.D., M.Sc. | Mass General Hospital (MGH) – Dr. Alexander Nagrebetsky, MD, is an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, balancing clinical practice with leading research on ICU care, pain management, and preoperative fasting. His work investigates traditional fasting protocols before surgery, using big data and pragmatic clinical research to evaluate their impact. Additionally, he is involved in developing clinical recommendations for ICU care and utilizing innovative technology for pain management in critically ill patients. Students paired with Dr. Nagrebetsky will acquire hands-on experience in clinical trial operations, governance, and data analysis. Participants will analyze patient data to assess outcomes of different fasting protocols, gaining valuable research skills and opportunities for continued involvement in clinical studies, potentially contributing to abstracts.
Visit Dr. Nagrebetskys profile to learn more
Dr. Jerry Zhu, MD-PhD | Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) – Dr. Zhu is a gastroenterologist at BWH and leads a laboratory with long term interests in understanding the mechanisms that control cell proliferation and differentiation during early vertebrate embryogenesis and its clinical implications. Most recently, the laboratory’s work has led to a novel venue to revert immune suppression at tumor microenvironment, the central obstacle of cancer immunotherapy.
Visit Dr. Zhu’s BWH profile to learn more
