Stories

Michael Nguyen ’24, a neuroscience and music double major, won a Goldwater Scholarship, awarded to outstanding undergraduate students majoring in the natural sciences, engineering, or mathematics who intend to pursue research careers in these fields. He will receive $7,500 to support undergraduate tuition, room and board, books and fees.

Nguyen is a Bay Area native who grew up in Milpitas, California. His father David is an electrical engineer, as was his late mother, Helen. Both instilled their pride in the family’s Vietnamese heritage in their son.

Nguyen came to Santa Clara believing he wanted to become a doctor, partly because of health problems he and his family had experienced. But he learned at SCU that conducting research is another hands-on way to help others, and he fell in love with the experimental, collaborative, and controlled-discovery process of research.

In SCU’s Halladay Lab—named after psychology Assistant Professor Lindsay Halladay—he has worked on numerous research projects, including studying maternal stress in mice, and contributed as co-author on three scholarly publications. He also is the first chair clarinet player in the SCU Wind Ensemble and a fourth-degree black belt in Taekwondo (for which he’s also a nationally certified coach and referee).

“Michael is ambitious, intellectually gifted, and demonstrates great attention to detail,” said Halladay, who said Nguyen was doing advanced work independently in the lab even as a first-year student. “With his strong critical analysis of research design, precision with research methods, and authentic excitement for scientific discovery, he clearly has a future in scientific endeavors.”

Nguyen plans to pursue a Ph.D in neuroscience, conducting research on the cellular underpinnings of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis. He is open to being a university professor or even earning an M.D./Ph.D. in order to run hospital clinical trials.

“The study of the brain, which is such a complex organ, has a lot of work left to be done, and that’s what I’m really passionate about,” he said.

About the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation

Established by Congress in 1986, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation recognizes the nation’s top college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Learn more here.