Christine D. Pham

Christine is currently a rising senior at Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Washington.

From a young age, she has always been attracted to science, especially medicine. However, as time went on her passion for environmental science become stronger after taking courses such as AP Environmental Science and UW Global Warming: Understanding the Issues (ATMS 111). In these courses, she gained a deeper understanding of the world we live in. These courses included field trips to the local watershed and lab investigations such as calculating the age of tress to approximate the amount of CO2 each tree scrubs out of the atmosphere annually. She loves how environmental science requires multiple disciplines to fully understand the big picture.

When she first learned about ISB, the opportunity seemed perfect as her interest in the interactions between different scientific disciplines peaked. She was incredibly excited to work in an environment that promotes combining scientific specialties and collaboration.
She began interning in the Baliga Lab in October of 2015. This time proved essential for learning and improving basic lab skills to be prepared for the summer. During this summer internship she had the pleasure of working with Mycobacterium smegmatis and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, collaborating with high school interns, undergrad interns and her mentors to successfully conduct experiments.

Outside of the lab, Christine heavily involved in her school’s Health Occupations Students of America chapter serving as vice-president; she has also competed in various events, receiving awards at the state and national level. Her passion for science is also seen across her outside activities. She serves on the Pacific Science Center Teen Science Café Advisory Board, organizing events with professionals in the science field to provide a venue for teenagers to engage with professions in unexplored science fields. She is also interested in giving back to the local community, volunteering at her former elementary school weekly. Her involvement in the local Vietnamese community includes participating and placing in the Vietnamese-American Community of Seattle and Sno-King Counties 30th of April Competition.

To relax, Christine loves to listen to music, hang out with family and friends, or run, being an active member of her high school’s cross country team for the past 2 years.

Christine can be contacted via email at cpham11@outlook.com or on LinkedIn.

Quick Links to Projects
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Lipid Accumulation Under Phosphate Deprivation
Growth Rates of Mycobacterium smegmatis Under Various Conditions