Chidiebere Akusobi

Internal Medicine Resident, Massachusetts General Hospital

Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship awarded in 2016 to pursue an MD in Infectious Disease and a PhD in Infectious Disease at Harvard University.

Chidiebere Akusobi is an immigrant from Nigeria.

About Chidiebere Akusobi

Chidi Akusobi was born in Nigeria and immigrated to the United States at the tender age of 2. His parents left Nigeria to build a better life for their families and together, they settled in the Bronx, NY, where they both worked multiple jobs while attending nursing school. As a child, Chidi dreamt of becoming a physician despite attending under-resourced inner-city public schools. He attributes the start of his academic journey to the Prep for Prep program, which prepared him to attend Horace Mann, a private school in The Bronx.

After graduating from Horace Mann, Chidi attended Yale University where he majored in Biology and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. While at Yale, Chidi developed a passion for infectious disease research and his senior thesis won the William R. Belknap prize for excellence in Biological Studies. After graduation, Chidi completed an MPhil in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge under a Gates-Cambridge scholarship.

Afterwards, Chidi matriculated into the MD-PhD program at Harvard Medical School. For his PhD, Chidi worked with Dr. Eric Rubin studying essential genes in the pathogenic bacterium, Mycobacterium abscessus. He was awarded the competitive NIH F31 grant for his dissertation work. Chidi completed his MD-PhD degree in May, 2022 and is currently an Internal Medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. Broadly, Chidi is interested in infectious disease, clinical informatics, and the integration of digital and AI tools into healthcare.

Outside of the hospital, Chidi has been involved in several initiatives to increase the pipeline of underrepresented minority students in science and medicine. He has also been involved in COVID-19 vaccine education and outreach to minority communities. He has been featured on several panels, television programs, and podcasts including the New England Journal of Medicine podcast. He is passionate about science communication and STEM outreach and will continue this work alongside his clinical and research endeavors.