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Michael Tran Duong and Tiberiu Mihaila: Goldwater Scholarship

University of Pennsylvania students Michael Tran Duong and Tiberiu Mihaila have been awarded the Goldwater Scholarship. Each year, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awards 300 scholarships to sophomores and juniors who demonstrate excellence in science, engineering and mathematics and plan to pursue PhD study and careers in academic research.

Michael Tran Duong, a second-year student from Worcester, Pennsylvania, is studying biochemistry and biophysics. As a member of the 3-D epigenomes and neurobiology lab of Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, assistant professor in the department of bioengineering in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and Perelman School of Medicine, Mr. Duong investigates dynamic patterns of 3-dimensional genome folding in brain development and disease. He plans to become a physician-scientist researching the genetics and neuroimaging of Alzheimer’s disease and neurodegeneration.

Tiberiu Mihaila, a second-year student from Syracuse, New York, is studying physics, biophysics and biochemistry in the Vagelos Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences in the School of Arts & Sciences. He is a member of a group in the department of chemistry led by E. James Petersson, associate professor, that uses fluorescence techniques to study protein misfolding and cellular pathology in Parkinson’s disease model systems. Mr. Mihaila hopes to pursue an MD and a PhD in order to use biophysical and biochemical tools to elucidate neurodegenerative disease pathology.

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