Two Hopkins BME grad students named Siebel Scholars

Two Johns Hopkins doctoral students studying biomedical engineering have been named 2025 Siebel Scholars, an honor that recognizes students in bioengineering fields for exemplary achievement in academia, research, and leadership.

Since its founding in 2000, the Siebel Scholarship has been awarded to 80 Johns Hopkins graduate students. Each year, around 100 scholars are selected from leading graduate schools to join a community of nearly 2,000 researchers, scholars, and entrepreneurs. Recipients receive a $35,000 award to support their final year of studies. Additionally, they are invited to attend annual conferences to discuss global issues alongside heads of state, scientists, and other experts seeking solutions to the world’s most complex and pressing problems.

The 2025 Siebel Scholars from Hopkins BME are:

Denis Routkevitch

Denis Routkevitch is an MD/PhD student at Johns Hopkins University studying acute care of spinal cord injury. His thesis project involves the development of a feedback control system to automatically regulate blood pressure and spinal cord blood flow in the early stages after injury. The multi-disciplinary and translational nature of research is directly influenced by both his background as a biomedical engineer and his clinical experience. Before starting his PhD, Routkevitch also completed his undergraduate years at Johns Hopkins, where he studied brain tumor immunology and developed novel nanoparticle gene delivery treatments. So far, his work has resulted in three first/co-first author publications, 21 coauthor publications, one patent, 21 conference presentations, and both the F30 and AHA fellowships. In addition to his research, Routkevitch is extremely passionate about mentoring. Throughout his PhD studies, he has mentored all levels—from high school students to those working towards their PhD.

Fangchi Shao

Fangchi Shao is a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, working under Professor Jeff Wang. His research focuses on developing micro and nanoengineering technologies to advance high throughput screening, disease diagnosis, and nanomedicine manufacturing. His work has resulted in 10 first/co-first-authored publications (five journal articles and five conference proceedings) and 19 presentations. Shao has received prestigious awards, such as C.M. Ho Best Paper Award at IEEE NEMS 2020 and CHEMINAS Young Researcher Poster Award at MicroTAS 2022 and holds a patent for a novel sample-to-microfluidic interface. Beyond research, Shao is actively involved in community leadership, serving as vice president of the JHU Chinese Students and Scholars Association and director of BME EDGE and JHGCC. He organizes alumni sharing sessions and disseminates over 50 original educational articles, garnering over 200,000 views. Shao is also dedicated to mentoring and guiding BME graduate students in securing internships and navigating career pathways.

Read about all the 2024 Siebel Scholars from Johns Hopkins on the Hub.