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LIVERMORE, Calif. – November 21, 2007 – Great Neck native and future physicist Zachary
Wissner-Gross has started his academic research career on a high note. The 22-year-old former professional
opera singer recently won a full five-year graduate fellowship from the prestigious
Fannie and John Hertz Foundation to pursue PhD studies in physics, specifically
biophysics, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. “I would like to apply my background in the physical
sciences toward innovating tissue engineering and other techniques of
regenerative medicine,” Wissner-Gross says. “I am particularly interested in studying neural tissue. I hope my research into nerve
regeneration will one day be helpful to patients with paralysis or
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.” Wissner-Gross is one of 15 graduate students selected
from more than 580 across the country to receive the Hertz graduate fellowship. Hertz Fellows each receive up to
$240,000 over five years to pursue their own scientific interests at top
universities in the United States.
This no-strings-attached support gives Hertz Fellows financial
independence and freedom to conduct innovative research because, unlike many
other grants, university and study choices are not limited by strict funding
requirements. “Hertz Fellows represent the very best young scientific
talent in our nation,” says John Holzrichter, PhD, Hertz Foundation
president. “These students embody
the drive and curiosity to solve the most difficult problems our world faces,
and we are pleased to support them as they grow in their chosen disciplines.” Wissner-Gross spent much of his childhood performing
with the New York City Opera, including major roles in Mozart’s “The Magic
Flute,” Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” and Britten’s “The Turn of
the Screw.” Of the latter
performance, renowned music critic Peter G. Davis wrote in New York Magazine: “Over
the years, I've seen more than a dozen boy sopranos … none better than Zachary
Wissner-Gross, whose sweet treble and angelic appearance are matched by
remarkable vocal assurance and stage savvy.” Aspiring to one day become a university professor,
Wissner-Gross already has an abundance of research experience, including work in
tissue engineering, cryobiology, stem cell identification, computational
neurology, and the detection of trace particles via mass spectrometry. He would ultimately like to design a
system that rapidly fabricates functional tissue and organs in vitro. Wissner-Gross has also taught several
courses to high school students while an undergraduate at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology through the Research Science Institute, MIT ACCESS and
the MIT Educational Studies Program. When he is not in the laboratory, Wissner-Gross may be
found on the stage, performing in musicals, or competing in table tennis
tournaments. He co-founded
“Chicken Tennis,” a recreational tennis club at MIT, and served as captain for
an intramural softball team.
Wissner-Gross is also a writer.
He placed second in a recent MIT science fiction writing contest and
served as editor of Counterpoint, an
MIT-Wellesley publication about student life. Wissner-Gross
graduated in 2003 from Great Neck South High School, Great Neck, N.Y., where he
was a National Merit Scholar. He
received a number of honors while in high school, including winning the “First
Step to the Nobel Prize in Physics” contest for modeling the membrane
potentials of interacting neurons.
This work also led to the prizes from the American Academy of Neurology
and the Intel Science Talent Search. He double majored in physics and biology at MIT, where
he graduated in 2007. Upon graduation, he received the Orloff Award for Service
to MIT Physics, and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Pi Sigma
Honors Societies. In addition to
the Hertz Fellowship, Wissner-Gross was awarded the U.S. Department of Defense
NDSEG Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research
Fellowship. He previously received
the Department of Homeland Security Undergraduate Scholarship and the NIH-MIT
Research Fellowship in Macromolecular Interactions. Wissner-Gross’s father, Sigmund Wissner-Gross, is an
attorney at Brown Rudnick, and his mother, Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, is a writer
and educational consultant.
Wissner-Gross’s brother, Alexander, 25, is completing graduate studies
in physics at Harvard and is also a Hertz Fellow. Zachary and Alexander are only the fourth pair of siblings
to receive the Hertz Fellowship in the history of the Hertz Foundation. About
the Hertz Foundation The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, based in
Livermore, Calif., is a tax exempt, not-for-profit organization dedicated to
the selection and support of outstanding individuals in the applied physical,
biological and engineering sciences.
Founded in 1963, the Foundation’s mission is to build America’s capacity
for innovation by nurturing remarkable applied scientists and engineers who
show the most promise to change the world. It awards fellowships to an average of 15 PhD candidates
every year to pursue graduate studies at the nation's finest academic
institutions. As a result, the
Hertz Foundation supports the research efforts of about 75 Fellows at any given
time. The Hertz Fellowships are
widely considered to be among the most competitive and most prestigious offered
anywhere. For more information
about the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, as well as giving opportunities, go
to www.hertzfoundation.org. |
