Fellow Highlights

Du Cheng Named To Crain’s New York Business 40 Under 40 Class of 2018

March 26, 2018

Congratulations to 2016 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow Du Cheng who was named to Crain’s New York Business’s 40 Under 40 list! Find his profile here.

Born and raised in Zhengzhou, China, Du found himself constantly frustrated by the education system’s emphasis on memorization. Du wanted to debate, research, invent, and create. When he moved to the US halfway through his college career to attend Humboldt State University, he felt he could finally give back to the world of knowledge he had spent so long simply regurgitating. Soon enough, Du began microbiology and stem cell research, which led to 11 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 4 of which he was the first-author on, as an undergraduate. Du also started to flex his entrepreneurial talent and founded his own company, iDu Optics. Du is currently a fifth year medical student and PhD candidate in the Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program in New York City. ∎