Álvaro Yáñez Touzet is a Research Fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi and the co-founder of the United Arab Emirates' Network of Students in Medicine and Health.

Álvaro is a biologist, musician and an aspiring physician. He majored in Biology with a specialization in Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Abu Dhabi in 2019, where he published thrice as an undergraduate student in biomimetics science, ophthalmology and generative music. He is a member of The Phi Beta Kappa Society and the NYU Global Leadership Scholars program, and is particularly fond of interdisciplinary collaboration and intercultural exchange. At Leonardo, he is also a manuscript reviewer, specifically interested in the crossroads of music, science and the brain.

In 2018, Álvaro co-lead a collaboration between Naumov Group and Magzoub Lab that integrated biology, chemistry and physics in a study of the self-burial of feather grass awns. That same year, he also combined his interest in genetics and music to develop an algorithm that generates rhythms from DNA sequences, under the mentorship of McGill University Professor Emeritus and NYU Abu Dhabi Head of Computer Science Godfried Toussaint. In the future, Álvaro hopes to integrate his interest in neurology and music therapy, and to continue to create innovative collaborations that bring together the arts and sciences as he dedicates his career to the alleviation of human suffering and building a more just and peaceful world.

Today, he is a Research Fellow at the Chaudhury Laboratory of Neural Systems and Behavior, and a member of the selective, inaugural cohort of research fellows at NYU Abu Dhabi. You can contact him at ayanez@nyu.edu.