Dr. Marissa Michael, a brilliant young medical scholar from Antigua and Barbuda, has graduated with high distinction from Weill Cornell Medical College, earning a place among the most accomplished graduates of the Class of 2025.
Dr. Michael’s academic and research accomplishments have earned her national recognition in the United States, with multiple awards from prestigious surgical societies and academic institutions. Her achievements mark her as a rising leader in the field of surgical medicine—and a proud representative of her home country.
A former Island Scholar and top performer in Antigua and Barbuda’s 2014 CSEC and 2009 Common Entrance Exams, Dr. Michael has consistently demonstrated academic excellence. She graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2018 before pursuing medicine at Weill Cornell, where her brilliance continued to shine.
Among her many accolades, Dr. Michael received the Certificate of Distinction in Global Health for her work on international health issues, including research presented at the 2022 International Society for Burns Injuries Conference in Mexico and a clinical elective in Doha, Qatar. Her research portfolio is both broad and impactful, ranging from oncology to neurological surgery. In 2024, she took First Place in Clinical Research at the American College of Surgeons Medical Student Program for a study on diagnostic tools in spinal disorders.
She also contributed to a randomized-controlled trial in the Department of Neurological Surgery and earned recognition from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for her early research efforts.
Dr. Michael’s main research focus during medical school—her “Area of Scholarly Concentration”—was in cardiothoracic surgery. Her study on tumor-draining lymph nodes in non-small cell lung cancer garnered the Best Thoracic Presentation Award at the inaugural Women in Thoracic Surgery Conference (San Diego, 2024) and was later presented at the 2025 American Association for Thoracic Surgery Annual Meeting in Seattle.
For this groundbreaking work, she received both the Area of Concentration Certificate of Excellence and the Susanna Cunningham-Rundles Medical Student Research Prize—an honor reserved for the most outstanding research in her graduating class.
She was also awarded the Clarence C. Coryell Prize in Surgery for top performance in surgical rotations and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, one of the highest distinctions in American medical education.
Dr. Michael will remain at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center for her General Surgery Residency, a competitive seven-year program that includes five years of clinical training and two years of research. She plans to subspecialize in thoracic surgery, with a focus on thoracic oncology.
A government spokesperson praised her accomplishments, stating, “Dr. Michael’s achievements exemplify the best of what medicine and academic commitment can produce. She brings great honor to her institution and to the people of Antigua and Barbuda.”
