Ariel Rad M.D., Ph.D.
By day, Ariel Rad is a plastic surgery resident in his final year of training and about to become chief resident. By night, he’s an accomplished ballroom dancer easily spinning and lifting a dance partner over his head. This combination of science and the arts seems to run in his genes, with a Persian father who is a physicist and violinist, and a Chinese mother who is a biologist and pianist.
Ariel graduated in mechanical engineering from Princeton University where he was captain of the varsity swim team. Along with this early athletic passion, he also discovered ballroom dancing. At first he thought it would be useful to know a few steps for an event like a wedding, but he soon fell in love with the artistry, music, fun, and skill of ballroom dance. He started down the path of serious competition that continues to this day.
His busy medical school schedule at Duke made time for dancing difficult, but during a year he spent in research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, he was able to work with world champion Latin dancer, Beverly Rees. After graduating from Duke, he managed to pursue his immunology research for NIH in London, England, while also training with some of the best in the world in dancing. He traveled to France, performing and learning to speak French.
Following his PhD in immunology from the University of London, he entered residency at Johns Hopkins while continuing to dance with Nonci Tirado, a former United States champion, in shows and competitions around the world.
Ariel and his current dance partner perform for a traveling entertainment company and were recently filmed for a “Dancing with the Stars”-flavored Latin show. He teaches regularly in Baltimore and Washington, DC.
Ariel loves microsurgery, reconstruction, and cosmetic surgery as much as “traveling and the European way of living.” Often he gets asked how he has time to do both dancing and residency. Ariel looks at his married colleagues with three kids and thinks on the contrary, he has it easier – “I can just take a break if I get too busy.”
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