Undergraduate Celebration
College of Science
Saturday, April 25, 2026
9:00 a.m. ET Leader Bank Pavilion
PROGRAM
Welcome
Missy McElligott
Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs
Student Address
Kai Godhwani
Dean’s Address
Brent Nelson
Interim Dean, College of Science
Celebration Speaker
David Hallal
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, Scholar Rock
Recognition of Graduates
Missy McElligott
Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs
Closing Remarks
Missy McElligott
Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs
CELEBRATION SPEAKER
David Hallal
David Hallal is an accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with more than three decades of experience building and operating companies that deliver life-changing therapies for patients worldwide. His career sits at the powerful intersection of science, business, and innovation—embodying the spirit of translational impact that defines Northeastern and its mission to prepare graduates to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
Hallal is the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Scholar Rock, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing novel treatments for neuromuscular diseases, cardiometabolic disorders, and other serious conditions. Under Hallal’s leadership, the company has raised more than $1 billion and successfully advanced a highly innovative new therapy for spinal muscular atrophy. Previously, Hallal served as chairman and chief executive officer of ElevateBio, a genetics medicine company whose advanced technology platforms and manufacturing capabilities serve biopharmaceutical partners from large multinationals to early-stage biotechs. Hallal continues to serve as executive chairman of ElevateBio’s board of directors.
Prior to ElevateBio, Hallal spent more than a decade at Alexion Pharmaceuticals as chief commercial officer, chief operating officer, and chief executive officer, where he played a central role in transforming the company from a pre-commercial stage in 2006 to operations in more than 50 countries in 2016. During his tenure, Hallal built the commercial infrastructure behind what became the most successful commercialization of an ultraorphan drug in the biotechnology industry, and as CEO he transitioned Alexion from a singleproduct company to a multi-product enterprise.
Earlier in his career, Hallal held leadership positions at OSI Eyetech, Biogen, and Amgen, where he launched and expanded the adoption of first-in-class and blockbuster products across a broad range of disease areas.
Hallal also serves as chairman of the board of directors of Kalaris Therapeutics. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of New Hampshire and is on the UNH Foundation board of directors.
DEAN
Brent
Nelson
Brent Nelson was appointed interim dean of the College of Science in 2025. Since 2017, he served as Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College, overseeing undergraduate curriculum, academic advising, and student success initiatives. His leadership contributed to significant achievements, including increasing undergraduate yield, expanding the Summer Bridge program for incoming underrepresented students, and establishing the Science Connects to Innovation Program, which empowers undergraduate science students to create entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges.
Nelson came to Northeastern in 2006 after having served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics in Ann Arbor, MI. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of National Academy member Mary K. Gaillard.
A professor of physics, Nelson is a theoretical particle physicist whose work connects string theory to testable observations in high energy physics and cosmology. His 60+ scholarly publications over the last 20 years include highly-cited research into hadron collider phenomenology, supersymmetric model building, dark matter phenomenology, mathematical physics, and computational approaches to string theory.
With colleagues at Northeastern University, Nelson established the rapidly growing field of machine learning applications in theoretical particle physics, including the use of network science to study the vacuum selection problem, and the use of reinforcement learning as a tool to study the string landscape.
STUDENT ADDRESS
Kai Godhwani
Kai Godhwani is graduating from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology and a minor in Art. He began his Northeastern journey through the NUin Program, studying abroad at University College Dublin in Ireland.
Godhwani first worked as an aquarist at the New England Aquarium before completing his first co-op at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, where he supported live animal studies and cared for cephalopod research species. For his second co-op, he conducted field and laboratory research under Mark E. Hahn at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, exploring environmental toxicology and geneenvironment interactions in aquatic organisms.
In 2025, Godhwani received the Jill Barrett Research Award and conducted research under Aron Stubbins studying plastics in environmental and biological systems. Outside of the lab, he honed his fine art skills and channeled them into science communication through projects like The Plastic Reef, a coral reef scene constructed entirely from beach plastic pollution, and outreach activities engaging middle and high school students in environmental education, art activities, and hands-on microplastics research. He further developed his teaching and communication skills as a laboratory teaching assistant for Ecology and as a peer mentor in the Marine Environmental Science Program.
Godhwani currently works as a research technician in the Fischer Lab’s Targeted Protein Degradation Core at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he supports mass spectrometry-based proteomics workflows to study the ubiquitin-proteasome system and explore how these molecular pathways can be leveraged to selectively remove disease-driving proteins.
