After the GPSW’s most highly competitive admissions season yet, we’re proud to announce our Class of 2025. Our incoming students hail from a broad spectrum of geographical, academic, and professional backgrounds, and bring an enormous range of skills and experiences. We are thrilled to welcome these students to our campus this coming fall:

Sarah R. Akaaboune attended the University of Michigan, where she studied neuroscience and English. She studied the impacts of Golgi fragmentation on lysosomal protein biogenesis, and served as a writer and editor for her student newspaper, The Michigan Daily; a community leadership fellow at her local health department; and a student correspondent for Teen Vogue, where she covered the 2024 presidential election cycle in Michigan.

Anika Jane Beamer has spent years researching and thinking about life’s little guys—viruses, bacteria, and fungi. As a science writer for Grinnell College, she shared stories about research, faculty, and students in fields as far-flung as robotics, galaxy formation, water geochemistry, and lung cancer. 

Jessica Chomik-Morales holds an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and currently works in a cognitive neuroscience lab at MIT, where she uses fMRI to explore abstract thought in humans. She hosts and produces Mi Última Neurona, a neuroscience podcast in Spanish that aims to ignite curiosity, spark conversations, and empower her community.

Nanticha Ocharoenchai, or Lyn, graduated from Chulalongkorn University with a degree in communications. Lyn organized what grew into Thailand’s first youth climate movement and has written and produced short films for WWF, Greenpeace, Mongabay, The Pulitzer Center, and more, covering topics from wildlife conservation to Indigenous knowledge and land rights. 

Pratik Pawar is a science journalist who covers stories about global health, medicine, and science policy. He is particularly interested in covering neglected health issues in the Global South and in understanding the role of inequity and socio-political realities in furthering health crises. His work has been published in The Atlantic, Nature, Science, and Undark, among other outlets.

Paula Rowińska is the author of Mapmatics: A Mathematician’s Guide to Navigating the World, a popular science book about the mathematics of maps. She earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and statistics at Imperial College London and creates interactive math and data science content for Brilliant, an educational company.

Mackenzie White earned a Ph.D. in geophysics, specializing in temperatures on the Moon and Mars. During graduate school, she worked on NASA missions, which fueled her enthusiasm for sharing discoveries with the public. She has contributed to outlets like Google Arts & Culture and Eos and was a 2022 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Science Friday.

Celina Zhao is pumped to be staying in Cambridge for another year after studying writing and biology as an undergraduate at MIT. Her work with Science, NOVA, and Cell Press has led her to explore scientific topics ranging from telescope cyberattacks to controversial fossils to microbes that travel through wildfire smoke. 

Longer bios of our incoming students are available here. Welcome Class of 2025!