In celebration of Caribbean-American Heritage Month, we honor the trailblazers in the field of medical imaging research who have made significant contributions.

Yazmin Feliz is a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University Medical Center. She specializes in developing medical imaging solutions and supporting translational research. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics of Computation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University.

Growing up in the Bronx with an immigrant mother from the Dominican Republic, Dr. Feliz recognizes the sacrifices her mother made to provide her opportunities to succeed.

Feliz attended her first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workshop in sixth grade and has since worked hard to obtain full scholarships to attend undergraduate and graduate programs. She took on leadership roles in projects during college and was introduced to research in 2008.

Feliz co-authored her first publication and won awards at the RPI Undergraduate Research Symposium and the Cornell Louis Stokes Conference. She believes that having someone believe in you is essential in achieving your goals and encourages fostering a network.

Feliz began her Ph.D. as a GEM Fellow and National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellow in 2016. She joined the Creative Machines Lab and led the Open-Source Portable Ultrasound project.

This project resulted in the first-ever imaging system that generates 3D sonograms for under $100 in materials cost, paving the way for ultra-affordable modalities to enter the ultrasound market. She is now launching her startup to provide a more user-friendly and economical imaging system that can be used for remote patient monitoring.