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Abdul El-Sayed, a first-generation Egyptian-American, is pursuing a Ph.D. in epidemiology at SPH in combination with an M.D. from the UM Medical School. One of 32 U.S. citizens to receive a Rhodes Scholarship in 2008, he’ll spend the next two to three years at England’s Oxford University studying global health, with a focus on birth outcomes in the developing world.

“As a kid I went back and forth between U.S. and Egypt a lot. That’s shaped my perspective on health disparities,” he says. “In the U.S. we have disparities. Overseas we have chasms. Going back to Egypt and living with some of my cousins and experiencing how they live—it sets you right. I realize how really lucky I am to be living in the U.S., and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to address these disparities, both at home and abroad.”

Photo by Peter Smith, taken at Ann Arbor’s Totoro Restaurant, March 9, 2009