Prize Recipient

Azadeh Keivani
Digital Age Academy Inc.

"For the development and application of artificial intelligence techniques to problems ranging from education to clinical studies in cancer and heart disease, and for enthusiasm in the translation of esoteric academic research training into solutions for pressing real-world problems."

Azadeh Keivani holds a B.Sc. in physics from Sharif University of Technology (2008) and a Ph.D. in physics from Louisiana State University (2013). As a postdoc at Pennsylvania State University, she developed a cyber-infrastructure for real-time analyses of multi-messenger astrophysical data. Awarded by NASA, she searched for high-energy astrophysical sources emitting X-rays, UV/optical waves, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. She and her collaborators at AMON, IceCube, Swift, and other observatories discovered the first evidence of an astrophysical high-energy neutrino source in 2017. In 2018, she joined Columbia University as a lecturer in discipline and continued her research in multi-messenger astrophysics. She co-founded Digital Age Academy Inc. in 2020, an EdTech nonprofit empowering underserved youth with digital and entrepreneurial skills. Azadeh transitioned to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2021, where she applied her scientific problem-solving skills, physics knowledge, and quantitative background to develop predictive models for cancer care. She is currently a senior data scientist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, developing deep learning models to detect cardiac diseases early. Beyond her scientific contributions, Azadeh is a champion for immigrant and underserved students in STEM. She co-founded Staryab, the first Farsi-language professional astrophysical literature website, winning the 2018 Cheragh prize for scientific outreach to Farsi speakers.