Nadia Ansari Design Award

Sometimes illness takes more than health. It interrupts a life already underway: the body you trusted, the plans you made, the version of yourself you expected to keep.

Grief is part of surviving that loss. Acceptance matters; it is hard-earned, and it asks a great deal. But acceptance answers only one question: How do I live with this? It can leave the harder question untouched: Does it have to be this way for the next person?

Nadia Ansari began asking that question after being diagnosed at thirteen with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune condition that attacks the nervous system. She was left with whole body crippling neuropathic pain and lived through the fear, pain, and uncertainty of it. But she kept asking, does it have to be this way for everyone?

Only two years later, in 2019, she began researching photobiomodulation: how targeted light can support healing and regeneration. Her work earned recognition from NASA, but its meaning was deeply personal: she was studying a problem she understood from the inside. When her brother built a neuromodulation device to help ease her chronic pain, Nadia saw beyond her own relief. She saw a way to help patients still waiting for better options.

That question continued to shape her path. This year, Nadia graduated from Stanford, where she studied design for healthcare. Today, she is helping lead that effort forward, overseeing FDA-regulated clinical trials for the company bringing the device to patients with chronic pain.

Nadia’s story is not simply about resilience. It is about agency: refusing to treat suffering as inevitable when something better can be built. This award honors people who carry that same refusal… those who look at what patients are forced to endure and choose to design a different future.

Any high school senior or undergraduate student who is pursuing biology or product design may apply for this scholarship opportunity.

To apply, tell us about your interest in creating solutions for those with chronic health conditions, what specific problem you want to solve, and how you chose this problem.