Dana Thornlow Lamson: Post-Doctoral Fellow

[she/her]

Dana grew up on the south shore of Long Island, and takes significant pride in her lack of accent. While earning her PhD from Cornell in upstate NY, she learned the value of cold winters on research productivity, and thus proceeded to move due east to Cambridge for her postdoc in the Schmidt Lab. While not in the lab, she enjoys running, dancing, or talking about the most recent episode of the podcast, "Planet Money".

Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Cornell University; Alabi Lab

contact: dthornlow [at] mgh.harvard.edu

Catherine JAcob-Dolan: Post-doctoral Fellow

Born and bred in the Boston area, Catherine ventured off to Germany in search of the perfect pretzel (and an undergraduate degree), before she unwittingly found herself right back in her home state. When not working in the Barouch lab, working in the Schmidt lab, or commuting between the two, Catherine is probably hiking, snacking, or trying her best at trivia.

Ph.D. in Immunology, Harvard; Schmidt and Barouch Labs

contact: cjacob-dolan [at] mgh.harvard.edu

shiyu zhang: Post-doctoral fellow

Having grown up in Suzhou, China, a beautiful garden city, Shiyu departed for Philly in the US in pursuit of cheesesteaks (and a Ph.D. degree at Drexel University). Attracted by tacos, Shiyu moved to San Diego for a postdoctoral associate position at Scripps Research. Due to family issues (family always comes first), she ended up joining Schmidt Lab for a crystal (X-ray) and freezing (cryo-EM) journey. Shiyu loves enjoying and cooking delicious dishes (and dealing with diapers).

Ph.D. in Biomedical Science, Drexel University; Chaiken Lab

Andrea Garavito: Graduate Student

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Herchel Smith Fellow

Born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, Andrea left the South American Andes mountains for the land of BBQ and cowboys, Texas. She obtained her undergraduate from Texas Tech and shortly after completed a post-bac at Harvard. It was there that she decided to join the chemical biology program and most importantly the Schmidt lab. In her free time, she enjoys going for a run and spending quality time with her baby, Léon.

Harvard Chemical Biology Ph.D. Program

contact: paulagaravito [at] g.harvard.edu

AnNA-Sophia Boguraev: Graduate Student

[she/her]

Anna-Sophia grew up north of NYC (not upstate), moved to New Haven, CT for undergrad, and has now committed to the joy of eight-ish Boston winters. While her motivation for chasing increasingly bad weather up the New England coastline is unclear, a linear extrapolation makes her fairly confident that, by the mid-2030's, she’ll be running the Atlantic Ocean’s first subaquatic virology lab somewhere slightly east of Nova Scotia. Until then, she’s excited to be spending her copious free time drawing, running very slowly, talking about books she will never write, talking about books other people have written, talking about space, and just talking in general.

Harvard/MIT M.D.-Ph.D. Program

contact: aboguraev [at] hms.harvard.edu

Isaiah Shriner: Graduate Student

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

[he/him]

Hailing from beautiful Colorado, Isaiah ventured far from his family home to pursue his undergraduate degree in Boulder. He then followed his research up and down the California coast, surfing when he could (once) and treating himself to burritos (every day), before making the move to Boston for his PhD. When not in the lab, you can find him spending time outdoors, cycling around the city, and pretending to know everything about coffee.

Harvard Biological and Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. Program

contact: isaiahshriner [at] g. harvard.edu

ANNE ROFFLER: Graduate Student

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

[she/her]

Originally from Taipei, Anne hopped the Pacific to pursue her undergraduate studies in sunny southern California before trading in high rent prices for even higher rent in Boston. When not in lab, Anne can be found irresponsibly spending at supporting local bakeries, building furniture that probably won’t be weight bearing, and collecting coffee contraptions so that she will finally “make coffee at home”. She also enjoys supplementing her schooling with physical therapy in the pottery studio to combat pipette-related carpal tunnel.

Harvard Biological and Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. Program

contact: aroffler [at] g. harvard.edu

MYA Vu: Research Assistant

Mya can’t seem to stay away from extreme weather, growing up in the frozen tundras of Minnesota, moving to the deserts of Nevada, and then settling in unpredictable Maine for her undergraduate career. When not in the lab, Mya loves to play soccer, hike, camp, and pet any dog that walks past her.

contact: myvu [at] mgh.harvard.edu

Sophia Sordilla: Research Assistant

[she/her]

Sophia was born and raised in the Chicago metropolitan area and moved to Providence to pursue her interests in evolutionary biology at Brown.  After five years of working with elephants, pigs, and bats (oh my!), she made the move to Cambridge to continue enjoying New England winters. Outside of the lab, Sophia can be found playing ultimate frisbee, hiking, and rewatching all her favorite sitcom series.

contact: ssordilla [at] mgh.harvard.edu

[Insert your name here] 

We are always interested in recruiting enthusiastic individuals to join our group! Please send all inquiries to aaron.schmidt [at] mgh.harvard.edu.

Postdoctoral Fellows: please arrange to send three letters of recommendation, CV and a cover letter.

Graduate Students @ Harvard, MIT: please email Aaron about setting up a meeting to discuss possible rotations in the lab.

Undergraduate Students: we want to provide opportunities for ambitious undergrads in the Boston and Cambridge area to pursue research. Please email Aaron about possible semester or summer options.