2023-24 Stanford EM Chief Residents
Pranjal Gupta, MD
Medical School: Johns Hopkins
Undergraduate: Vanderbilt
Advice for Residents:
"Residency is a marathon, not a race! Pace yourself and remember that taking care of yourself should be your highest priority to become the best physician you can be."
Favorite thing about Stanford EM:
"My favorite aspect is the level of highly complex patients we have the privilege of caring for, as well as working with the most brilliant physicians in the world throughout the hospital."
In my spare time:
"I love watching sports, spending time with friends and family, learning new skills like golf and chess, and building our home garden with my wife."
Rahul Nayak, MD, MTM
Medical School: Virginia Commonwealth
Undergraduate: UC Berkeley
Favorite thing about Stanford:
"The awesome resident families, supportive mentors and advisors, amazing attendings…you could be walking to your car and be parked next to a Nobel laureate who’s getting into their car to drive home."
In my spare time:
"I love to cook, eat, and play/watch a ton of sports! I am a huge Cal Football fan, and enjoy going to the Cal / Stanford sports events."
Advice for residents:
"Be honest, give your best, work hard, ask questions, and learn from and teach others."
Julia Sun, MD, MS
Medical School: SUNY Upstate
Undergraduate: University of Toronto
Advice for residents:
"Residency is what you make it to be, so you might as well make it a good time."
In my spare time:
"I play video games, enjoy time with my husband Justin and our cats, home-brew fruit wine, explore the area for good food, occasionally go on a hike, and I recently got into rock climbing."
Favorite thing about Stanford:
"All the amazing people! Seriously, everyone here is brilliant."
Zachary Zuniga, MD
Medical School: New York University
Undergraduate: Stanford University
Advice for residents:
"Residency can be challenging, but it has lots of amazing and fun moments—make sure to appreciate the good times, small victories, and the amazing people around you."
In my spare time:
"I enjoy hiking and spending time outside, exploring new locations around the Bay Area, hanging out with my wife and our two cats, and cooking new recipes."
Why Emergency Medicine:
"We have a unique privilege to help people when they are feeling their worst, and nothing is more interesting than walking into the room of a completely undifferentiated, sick patient and trying to figure out those next few steps."
