2023 Hertz Summer Workshop Recap

September 26, 2023

The 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop, which took place August 3–6, 2023, at the University of California, San Diego campus, was truly a one-of-a-kind gathering filled with vibrant discussions, meaningful networking and productive collaboration.

We hope you find these videos of our special guest speakers and Hertz Fellows Showcase valuable and encourage you to share them with colleagues who you think may be interested. Thank you again to all who attended and those who volunteered their time and resources to make this year's workshop a success.


Guest Speakers

"Bioorthogonal Chemistry, From Basic Science to Clinical Translation."

Nobel Laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, professor at Stanford University and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, presented "Bioorthogonal Chemistry, From Basic Science to Clinical Translation."


"The Power of Questions"

France Cordova, president of the Science Philanthropy Alliance and former director of the National Science Foundation, presents "The Power of Questions."


"ARPA-H: Accelerating Better Health Outcomes for Everyone"

Hertz Fellow Jennifer Roberts, director of Resilient Systems at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), explores the agency's efforts to support transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs — ranging from the molecular to the societal — to provide health solutions for all.


"Talking to Cells with Biomolecular Ultrasound"

Hertz Fellow Mikhail Shapiro, the Max Delbrück Professor of Chemical Engineering and Medical Engineering, an HHMI Investigator, and Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Medicine at Caltech, discussed his laboratory's work to engineer biomolecules with the appropriate physical properties to interact with sound waves.  


"Rapid Prototyping, Learning, and Iteration in New Physical Domains Where Lab Work Won't Suffice"

Hertz Fellow Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots (CEO) at X, led an interactive session exploring rapid prototyping, learning, and iteration in new physical domains where lab work won't suffice.


Hertz Fellows Showcase

Hertz Fellows took part in five minute lightning talks to share a variety of groundbreaking scientific research and technology development.

"Statistical Inference for Fairness Auditing"

Hertz Fellow John Cherian, a doctoral student at Stanford University, presents "Statistical Inference for Fairness Auditing" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Creating New Genomic Medicines with Man-Made Evolution"

Hertz Fellow Jordan Doman, a doctoral student at Harvard University, presents "Creating New Genomic Medicines with Man-Made Evolution" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Computationally Efficient Learning of POMDPs"

Hertz Fellow Noah Golowich, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents "Computationally Efficient Learning of POMDPs" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Computational Microbiome Engineering"

Hertz Fellow Liyam Chitayat Levi, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents "Computational Microbiome Engineering" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Harnessing Light-Matter Interactions"

Hertz Fellow, Sahil Pontula, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents "Harnessing light-matter interactions to push the boundaries of physics and photonic technologies" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Carbon Dioxide Removal"

Hertz Fellow Judy Savitskaya presents "Carbon Dioxide Removal" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Building Miniature Microscopes"

Hertz Fellow Joe Scherrer, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents "Reverse Engineering Smartphone Cameras for Building Miniature Microscopes" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Accelerating Inference with Staged Speculative Decoding"

Hertz Fellow Benjamin Spector, a doctoral student at Stanford University, presents "Accelerating Inference with Staged Speculative Decoding" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.


"Building a Modular Quantum Computer"

Hertz Fellow Beatriz Yankelevich, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presents "Building a Modular Quantum Computer" at the 2023 Hertz Summer Workshop.