Phuong is a rising senior at Evergreen High School and attends South Seattle College through the Running Start program. In her free time she enjoys crocheting and digital art. Her 10th grade science class sparked her interest in biology, especially cellular biology. This eventually led her becoming a Highline VOICES intern in 2022 in her sophomore year applying to ISB through the program that sparked her interest in microcellular sciences, then eventually applying to High School intern for ISB in 2023.
In continuation of her VOICES internship in 2022, delving into the research of Halobacterium through different media cultures. This summer at ISB, Phuong and her lab partner Nastexo Nur began researching the resilience and recovery of Halobacterium. Alongside the mentorship of the Director of the Education Department at ISB, Claudia Ludwig and undergraduate intern, Kally Chamberlain; they worked to understand and expose Halo bacterium to multiple stressors and observe the tipping points that correlates with the recovery limits of the (Halo)species, in relation to future climate scenarios.
Phuong hopes to continue her scientific education in the biological medicine sciences. In doing so, Phuong wishes to open her pathways to multiple possibilities in the field of medical research as she’s interested in becoming a Primary Care Physician to work with patients on a first contact basis. This internship helped her continue learning about medicine and be passionate about the importance of fundamental sciences.
Phuong will resume research on Halobacterium at ISB as an intern during the school year. Alongside her lab partner Nastexo Nur, they will continue their resiliency and recovery experiment hoping to further understand the Rules of Life and implement an education curriculum based on resilience of cellular organisms into classrooms.