Avash Kalra
Avash Kalra (Creator, Founder & Host) is a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He is a 2005 graduate of Cornell University, where he majored in Psychology, served as a columnist for The Cornell Daily Sun, and learned to survive harsh winters. Before starting medical school, Avash spent one year conducting research on lifespan extension at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland. In approximately 200 years, he promises to share what he learned. He also worked for one year as a clinical research coordinator in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Avash was born in England and lived there for 11 years. He loves to travel, especially in Europe, and he spends his free time working as a staff writer for an NCAA hockey website. Over time, he has developed unhealthy obsessions with ice hockey, tart frozen yogurt, and television shows such as Lost, Dexter, and Mad Men. In the future, Avash plans to pursue a career incorporating medical journalism with internal medicine… although he is leaving open the option of being a neurosurgeon, if only so that he can use the line, “Well that’s not exactly brain surgery! And I would know.”
Lakshman Swamy
Lakshman Swamy (Founder & Host) is a medical student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He is a 2005 graduate of the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH, where he self-designed the Neuroscience major. Before joining medical school, Lakshman worked for two years in the Trapp lab at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation as a lab technician working with multiple sclerosis.
Lakshman is a young gentleman in the MD/MBA program at Wright State, and accordingly, his favorite character on Scrubs is Dr. Kelso. He has an eclectic taste in music, loves audiobooks — especially mysteries — and loves outdated TV shows. He is currently on his MBA semester and is trying to catch up on everything he left hanging while studying for USMLE Step 1: reading Dr. Paul Farmer’s latest book, watching ER (for the first time!), Mad Men, and of course taking care of his amazing puppy, Topi the Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier. As for the future, he has no idea what he wants to do with his medical career, but he is definitely looking forward to working with patients instead of textbooks.
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Shamie Das
Shamie Das (Founder & Executive Producer) is an MD/MBA dual degree student at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University. He graduated from Emory University in 2004 as a dual major in Biology and Sociology. He went on to earn his Masters Degree in Public Health in 2007 from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. As a graduate student, he also performed bench research in Molecular and Cell Biology at the Emory University School of Medicine. In his free time during college, Shamie volunteered as an EMT-Intermediate and went on to become certified as a Paramedic.
Shamie was born in England and soon after moved to the US. In his free time he enjoys photography, traveling and fine cuisine. A few of his life goals are to visit every continent and climb Everest. An avid extremist, Shamie enjoys leaping out of perfectly good airplanes, white water rafting and jumping headfirst into gorges. Recently engaged, he also spends countless hours on the phone with his fiancée. His favorite authors include Hemingway, Frost, and Crichton (and of course Robbins). Television is a thing of the past in his current life, but occasionally he still watches PBS and listens to NPR and (of course) Radio Rounds.
John Corker
John Corker (Host & Lead Correspondent) is an MD/MPH dual-degree student at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. He is a 2003 graduate of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio and a 2007 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. After earning his degree in Biological Sciences, John spent two years traveling the country to recruit and evaluate applications as an Admissions Counselor in Notre Dame’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions. There is no doubt in his mind that this experience “from the other side” aided significantly in his ability to construct a medical school application deemed worthy of admission to one of the most challenging, engaging and underrated medical schools in the country.
In his free time (oxymoron?), John is an avid reader of the New York Times and the BBC news feed in order to stay abreast of current events and the ways of the world. Thanks to the wonders of DVR, he is also able to catch abbreviated versions of 24, Top Gear, Man vs. Food, and American Idol as he winds down before bed-time. Whenever possible, he loves to be active, exercise and watch his beloved Fighting Irish. When he grows up, he wants to replace Kirk Herbstreit in his role at the ESPN/ABC family of networks. In the meantime, he looks forward to pursuing a career in Emergency Medicine and Public Health Policy.
