Annual award recognizes world’s top graduate students from leading institutions of bioengineering, computer science, energy science, and business
Five Johns Hopkins doctoral students have been named 2026 Siebel Scholars, an honor that recognizes students in bioengineering fields for outstanding achievement in academia, research, and leadership.
Since its founding in 2000, the Siebel Scholarship has been awarded to 85 Johns Hopkins graduate students. This year, 78 scholars were selected from leading graduate schools to join an international network of nearly 2,000 researchers, scholars, and entrepreneurs. Recipients receive $35,000 to fund their final year of studies. Additionally, they’re given the opportunity 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 2026 Johns Hopkins Siebel Scholars affiliated with the Institute for NanoBioTechnology include:
Yining Zhu
Yining Zhu is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He was nominated for the Siebel Scholarship by his PhD adviser, Hai-Quan Mao, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Zhu engineers lipid nanoparticle platforms for gene therapy and mRNA vaccines, crafting formulations that reprogram immunity and enable precision genome editing. His portfolio spans 28 publications—eight first-author papers in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Chemical Engineering, and Nature Communications—plus seven conference abstracts. Zhu has nine issued patents, several licensed by EMC2 Bio and evaluated by Bluebird Bio, Sartorius-Polyplus, and Evonik, highlighting his translational impact, while nationwide collaborations with clinicians accelerate clinical adoption. Honors such as a Young Investigator Award and two Society for Biomaterials STAR Awards recognize his scientific leadership. Drawing on skills honed as president of his undergraduate student union, he now strengthens the Johns Hopkins community as a lab captain, mentors NSF-REU trainees and junior graduate students, teaches the intersession course “Introduction to Nanomedicine,” and volunteers as a Peer Health Navigator to support student mental health.
Read about all the candidates in the Johns Hopkins Hub.
Back row, from left: Yining Zhu and Jessica Stelzel. Front row, from left: André Forjaz, Akshaya Annapragada, and Kexin Wang