Research Elective Residents

Paolo de Angelis, MD

Weill Cornell Medical College

Paolo’s hometown is Milan, Italy. He moved to the U.S. for college and studied neuroscience at Cornell University. Before medical school, he took a gap year to pursue research at Rockefeller University. During medical school at Weill Cornell, Paolo was involved with teaching and mentoring, volunteered at a soup kitchen and helped co-lead a project to support NYC restaurants and healthcare workers during the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. In medical school, he also conducted research with a focus on healthcare disparities in trauma patients, resulting in multiple publications and presentations at national conferences. Before graduating, he was elected to both AOA and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Paolo loves art, cooking and road cycling; he is interested in HPB/surgical oncology and thoracic surgery.

J. Christopher Polanco Santana, MD, MSc, MPH

Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud

Chris' hometown is Cabarete, Dominican Republic. He received his MD from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. After medical school, Chris pursued a research fellowship with Dr. Tara Kent at BIDMC. He went on to receive a Master's of Science degree from Dresden International University in Germany and a Master's of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As a MPH student, Chris continued to work as a research fellow with Dr. Tara Kent at BIDMC. He participated in a series of studies related to clinical and pathophysiological HPB surgery problems, as well as a project elucidating whether letters of recommendation writer characteristics, including gender, age, professorial rank, and leadership positions, predict language bias and the Provider Awareness and Cultural Dexterity Toolkit for Surgeons (PACTS) Trial. Chris' interests include kitesurfing and hiking. He is also a self-taught computer programmer since the age of 12.

Dominic Recco, MD

Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

Dominic comes from Pennsylvania and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Biomedical Engineering. He received his MD from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where he was elected AOA, and received the LKSOM Academic Scholarship for outstanding academic achievement. As a medical student, Dominic developed an outreach program to middle school students and pursued clinical research focused on diabetes, leading to several publications. Dominic's hobbies include powersports, camping, cooking Hispanic and Italian cuisine, dancing, table tennis, and for those planning a major home remodeling project, carpentry, masonry, HVAC, and plumbing.

Eve Roth, MD

Harvard Medical School

Eve's hometown is Wellesley, Massachusetts, and she completed her undergraduate studies at Yale University, majoring in English and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She received her MD from Harvard Medical School and was engaged in a number of clinical and educational research projects, leading to multiple publications. Eve has been active in curriculum reform, serving as a Medical Education Student Representative, representing her peers on committees addressing the cultural and academic environment at HMS, including the Education Policy and Curriculum Committee, Surgical Education Committee, and as Student Co-Chair on the LCME re-accreditation committee. Eve's hobbies include marathon running, cooking, baking desserts, skiing, reading, and playing flute.

Nensi Ruzgar, MD, MHS

Yale School of Medicine

Nensi's hometowns are Istanbul, Turkey, and Toronto, Canada. Nensi graduated magna cum laude from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Biomedical Sciences Specialization) and received her MD/MHS degree from Yale School of Medicine. Her research prior to medical school at McMaster and Johns Hopkins Universities focused on the transcriptomic and epigenetic signatures of pluripotent stem cells. At Yale, Nensi's interests were at the intersection of international and local health equity, medical education, and surgical care access. Her thesis focused on the development of a tumor bank and research capacity in Uganda. She also served as a Solomon Center Research Fellow at the Yale Law School, where she studied the barriers to pediatric surgical care access for refugees and was selected as a Farr Scholar for her research. Nensi chaired and currently is a Junior Advisor for the international group, Gender Equity Initiative in Global Surgery, as well as serving as the Vice Chair of the Medical Student Committee for the Association of Women Surgeons and the VP Education for the Global Surgery Students Alliance. Outside of medicine, Nensi was the musical director and conductor of YSM's Fourth Year Show and spends her free time enjoying the outdoors (especially walking/biking/kayaking along the Charles) and making music.

Emily Scire, MD, MBE

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Emily's hometowns are Woburn, Massachusetts, Dover, New Hampshire and Wells, Maine. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Notre Dame with a BS in Biochemistry. She received her MD/MBE degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. As a medical student, she served on the Bioethics Standing Committee of the AMA Student Section and was appointed Northeast Student Representative to the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. In 2019, she received the Theodore Friedmann Prize for Significant Advances in Biomedical Ethics. She served on the board of the Agnew Surgery Society and the Agnew Surgery Clinic for uninsured Philadelphians. She was a peer mentor for the University of Pennsylvania Surgery Clerkship, served as a teaching assistant for the Doctoring and Anatomy courses, and was her class representative on the Diversity and Inclusion Student Advisory Committee. Emily's interests include gardening, knitting, crafting, baking, skiing, hiking, cycling, swimming, rowing, reading, and singing.