Sherman Leung with his parents, Chris and Joanne, after getting his white coat and a stethoscope as a first-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai student Sherman Leung is among 30 recipients—out of 2,211 applicants—to be named a 2020 Paul & Daisy Soros New Americans Fellow. The program recognizes outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate studies in the United States who have the potential to make significant contributions to the nation through their work. Each Fellow will receive up to $90,000 in funding over two years. Sherman, whose family came to the United States from Hong Kong, is a rising second-year medical student. The award will support his medical education.
The selection team specifically emphasized creativity, originality, initiative, and sustained accomplishment—all of which are found in abundance in Sherman’s early career.
Sherman was born in Maryland after his parents emigrated from Hong Kong during the handover of Hong Kong. His parents re-started their college educations and careers once in the United States; his father is a biochemist-turned-software engineer, and his mother, a literature major-turned-program analyst. “They taught me the importance of interdisciplinary thinking from an early age,” says Sherman. In high school, he conducted research that applied music theory to organic chemistry, and computational approaches to vaccine design.
Sherman’s diverse interests led him to Stanford University where he completed premedical requirements, initially planning to be a doctor. As he learned more about artificial intelligence, he shifted his focus to technology, conducting machine learning and social gamification research. While at Stanford, he started SHIFT, an interdisciplinary student group promoting and cultivating health care innovation initiatives.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, and a master’s degree Management Science and Engineering, Sherman moved to Boston, where he was an early product manager at PatientPing, a startup connecting providers across organizations and facilities to coordinate care and improve patient outcomes. For his work launching a national care coordination platform at PatientPing, Sherman was named to MedTech Boston’s “40 under 40 Healthcare Innovators” list in 2018.
“During my time working with health care startups and volunteering with immigrant and indigent patient populations, I was so inspired by many intimate patient-provider encounters to more directly serve patients as a physician,” he says. “I looked carefully for institutions that were eager to integrate new and underrepresented perspectives, and support extracurricular interests in addition to clinical medicine.” He found this at the Icahn School of Medicine, saying, “Dean Muller’s support of my diverse interests across entrepreneurship, health care technology, and clinical medicine, and the opportunity to work with Mount Sinai’s Diversity Innovation Hub, have been especially affirming in my first year as a medical student.” David Muller, MD, is Dean for Medical Education, and Professor and Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair in Medical Education.
Today, while pursuing his medical degree, Sherman continues to invest in and launch health care companies at AlleyCorp, a venture studio and early-stage investment fund based in New York City. “I care deeply about leveraging technology to support underserved patient populations and increasing the efficiency and efficacy of health care delivery,” he says.
He additionally supports student COVID-19 efforts at the Icahn School of Medicine, and is a New York City leader for Off Their Plate, a national initiative started by a 2019 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow that simultaneously supports restaurant and health care workers during this time of public health and economic upheaval. The organization raises funds that go directly to pay the wages of restaurant workers, who in turn prepare nutritious meals for front-line health care workers.
When asked for a famous quote that has inspired him, he chose this African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The word “together” is one that has long shaped him. “As the proud son of immigrants from Hong Kong, I am the product of parents who chose to prioritize democratic freedom over their own professional careers,” he says. “I believe that I am where I am today because of their sacrifice in choosing the more difficult path. To me, being the child of immigrants means that you never forget where you come from—they are the roots I will always acknowledge as I hope to continue my family’s heritage in both service and entrepreneurship.”