Student Profiles

Benjamin Simon graduated with Distinction from Duke University in May 2023, earning a dual degree in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science. He pursued undergraduate research under the mentorship of Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam, designing a machine learning and analysis pipeline to segment and analyze vascular features of mammary tissue in a mouse model. This project paved the way for his excitement for algorithmic design and the potential for such technologies based in machine learning to increase accuracy and efficiency of certain medical decisions and analyses.

Benjamin has also worked on various other projects at Duke University for which his work has been recognized by multiple awards, including four consecutive Undergraduate Assistantship Grants, a Student Marshal title, and a Rhodes Scholarship Nomination. In addition, he received the UCLA Research Excellence Award for his fellowship project on disease progression of complex mental health disorders using natural language processing of Electronic Health Record notes and latent dirichlet allocation under the guidance of Dr. Loes Olde Loohuis and Juan de la Hoz.

Outside of research, Benjamin is passionate about teaching and education. He taught multiple courses as a teaching assistant during his time at Duke in the Biology and Computer Science departments through which he came to love teaching and mentoring his students. Looking ahead, through the NIH OxCam program Benjamin will work with Dr. Baris Turkbey at the NCI and Dr. David Clifton at Oxford with a focus on building machine learning algorithms for cancer risk prediction. Additionally, he remains committed to furthering his training in education and teaching.