Michael Wu, M.D., is an Edina High School alum who was part of our Senior Spotlight feature in 2010. Today, he’s a surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Photo: Memorial Sloan Kettering
Senior Spotlight alum Michael Wu is making a difference in cancer care.
In August 2010, readers of Edina Magazine would have turned to page 24 to find then 18-year-old Michael Wu pictured in a dapper suit, cello in hand, looking every bit like a young musician destined for a life on the stage. And for a while, that seemed entirely possible. But in the 16 years or so since that Senior Spotlight feature was printed, Michael Wu is now Michael Wu, M.D.
“I still have my cello. Music is still something that is a big part of my life. I love it,” Wu says. “I really would not have thought that I’d be doing what I’m doing now.”
Wu traded in his cello bow for a scalpel. After graduating from Edina High School, he pursued an undergraduate degree in molecular biology from Harvard University and enrolled in Harvard Medical School. After graduating in 2019, he did his residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. Then in 2024, he did a fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology and microvascular reconstruction at Washington University in St. Louis. He is now a surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, specializing in head and neck cancers. He says all his success is owed to his schooling and life in Edina.
Wu’s family moved to Edina from southern California when he was in sixth grade. “I was surrounded by other people who were very academically gifted, motivated and had great values. It made me feel like, ‘Oh, I should do this too.’ And so it was the perfect storm for me. It set me onto the path of academic success,” he says.
Wu’s love of music was a driving force that influenced his medical specialty of choice. Photo: Marshall Franklin Long
Wu also credits the Twin Cities’ art scene with his determination and drive. His cello teacher, Peter Howard, taught him an important life lesson: The pursuit of excellence is only attainable through discipline. “Learning how to do something with a lot of commitment and a lot of detail is what helped me set up for other things in life,” he says.
As to why he chose his specialty, Wu says music influenced his decision. “Ear, nose and throat, and head and neck is really the field of communication,” he says. “This is the part of the body where you have the greatest impact on how you interact with the outside world. Whether that’s hearing, whether that’s speaking, how you look, how you eat. (Which is not just a basic function of life, but it’s a huge social thing as well.) A lot of times these cancers are aggressive, and left alone, they will take away these really human aspects of our life. So as a musician and somebody who cared about hearing and about voice, interacting with patients who are going through this really spoke to me.”
What also speaks to Wu is the power of Edina. He says he’s not the sole Hornet he has encountered over the years. “It’s amazing how when you meet somebody in these academic circles and they’re from Minnesota, how many of them are actually from Edina,” he says. “I continue to meet people who went to Edina High School or other schools like [The Blake School] or Breck [School]. They keep popping up in my life, and it’s actually quite amazing … I think I had six attending surgeons in the Harvard system that lived in Edina at one point in their life. It’s just so crazy. None of us knew each other from before. It’s not like I was a classmate or something like that. We just all happened to wind up there. Something in the water really kind of sends people on this path at least.”
As for if Wu’s path will ever lead him to the performance stage again, he is hopeful. “I’m not actively really performing anymore, but it’s something I hope to get back to one day,” he says.
