At DiscoverSTEM, research mentorship is not delegated – it is delivered by the best.
Unlike many research programs that pair students with college graduate students, we have taken a bold and unmatched approach. We have invited some of the world’s foremost experts – leaders in their respective fields – to personally mentor our students. Under their esteemed guidance, our young researchers receive the kind of mentorship typically reserved for graduate-level scholars.
Our distinguished research mentors support students by:
The impact of this mentorship is already visible. Recently, DiscoverSTEM students engaged in a rare three-hour scientific exchange with two Nobel Laureates in a single day. At the conclusion of this session, one of the Laureates praised our student’s work, saying: “That’s remarkable work.”
A powerful validation of the caliber, depth, and promise of research emerging from DiscoverSTEM.
This is not just research guidance — this is elite mentorship designed to shape the next generation of scientists, thinkers, and innovators.
Dr. Kozlakidis has served as President of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) from 2017 to 2018 and co-founded the Cass Health Innovation Club at Cass Business School, promoting interdisciplinary innovation in life sciences and medicine. His contributions span virology, biobanking, and digital health, earning him numerous international awards. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and serves on several high-level international boards and committees that shape policy on medical ethics, innovation, and healthcare startup strategy.
With work experience across the UK, US, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Greece, Dr. Kozlakidis continues to drive global impact by advising on the implementation and scalability of healthcare solutions, while mentoring the next generation of scientific leaders.
Dr. Gregg is an avid researcher and has served on the review panel with the National Institute of Health, mentored several post-doctoral fellows across the globe, published over 45 research papers, written, edited, or co-edited over 11 textbook chapters, invited speaker at 140+ research events worldwide
More recently he contributes to clinical practice guidelines and national policies that focus on the introduction of genetic and genomic technologies into clinical practice. These contributions led to an invitation to Capitol Hill and an opportunity to speak at a hearing devoted to prenatal carrier screening in the US.
Dr. Gregg is committed to nurturing the next generations of Genomics and Genetics experts. Our Genomics, Biotechnology, and Health Sciences research labs run under his esteemed guidance.
Dr. Peter Guida is a NASA-based molecular biologist who specializes in the field of radiation biology. He graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1999 with a Ph.D. in developmental and molecular biology. He then completed a 3-year post-doctoral fellowship at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in New York in the field of accelerator-based radiation biology.
In 2003 he joined the scientific staff at BNL and is currently a Full Scientist running a laboratory that investigates the effects of radiation on human neuronal cells. In addition, he serves as NASA’s Liaison Biologist for the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory Program, which examines the potential health risks to astronauts from exposure to the charged particle radiation that is found in space. He has published many research papers and is a peer-reviewer for numerous journals in the radiation and neuroscience fields. Dr. Guida brings extensive knowledge of molecular signaling pathways and DNA repair to DiscoverSTEM.
Dr. Medhat Askar, MD, Ph.D., MSHPE, FRCPath, is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Texas A&M College of Medicine, the Director of Transplant Immunology, Hematopoietic Cell Processing and COVID-19 laboratories at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Dr. Askar is the President of The American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), Immediate Past President of The American Board for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ABHI), and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Boards of Directors of United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).
He is also a Councillor to The Transplantation Society (TTS) representing North America, the Co-Chair of the TTS Education Committee, a member of the Laboratory Practice Committee of the International Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, and a Principal Investigator on several study protocols through the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR).
DiscoverSTEM students have this distinguished opportunity to carry out research activities at Dr. Medhat Askar’s Transplant Immunology Lab. We have signed a research agreement (MoU) with Dr. Medhat Askar, which allows our students access to world-class research facilities.
Dr. Bashoo Naziruddin is a translational research scientist with more than 30 years of experience in academia, the biotech industry, and the healthcare system.
He has contributed several chapters in books published by reputed authors like Elsevier and Bentham. He is amongst the very few scientists globally who has an expertise in Humic substances research. A well-travelled scientist; he has delivered scientific addresses in countries like USA, Austria, Japan, Netherlands, Turkey, Estonia, Spain and Russia. He has been Elite Fellow at University of Malaya (Malaysia) for the last 5 years where he takes classes on the topics related to industrial pharmacy.
His research has also been nominated for the William O’Dell Award, the Paul Green Award, the Long-Term Impact Award from the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science, the Frank M. Bass Outstanding Dissertation Award, and the John D. Little Award on multiple occasions.
He has advised various Silicon Valley startups and the U.S. Space Force. He has published research papers in top security and cyber warfare journals and conference proceedings. He holds Master’s degrees in Computer Science and Legal Studies from Texas A&M University.
Shefali has been passionate about dose for oncology patients throughout her 20+ year career in Pharma. Prior to joining Novartis, Shefali worked at Pfizer and also served as an Adjunct faculty for Clinical Pharmacology at the Brown University. She received her PhD in Pharmacology from U of Michigan.
