Desiree Nguyen

Undergraduate Research Ambassador

Desiree is a junior with majors in Neuroscience & Cognitive Sciences, Psychological Sciences, and Molecular & Cellular Biology, and she will be graduating a year early in Spring 2024 in order to pursue the Accelerated Master's Program (AMP) in Molecular & Cellular Biology. Driven by her own experiences in healthcare, she aspires to pursue medical school after graduation while continuing her psychological and neuroscience research into againg. As a recipient of the Flinn Scholarship in 2022 , she had the life-changing opportunity to travel to Finland to conduct her own independent sociological research project on the intersection between urban planning and education in May 2022. Over the past three years she has been a student at the University of Arizona, she has been involved in many research experiences. Since her freshman year, she has been involved as a research assistant and a data project lead in Dr. Taylor’s Insomnia-Sleep Health Lab, where she is now completing her honor thesis in determining the best sleep efficiency measurement and neuropsychological outcomes predictor. In her freshman and sophomore year, she has also been involved as a research assistant in Dr. Ricoy’s Electrophysiology & Invertebrates Lab, where she led a project evaluating the effects of potassium chloride on the cardiac activity of Mercenaria Mercenaria. Due to her biological research, she had the amazing opportunity to work as a research intern in Dr. Hinton's Lab at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, where she created 3D reconstructions of the morphology of mitochondrial structures in aged tissue specimens. Desiree has also been accepted to present her research through a poster at many conferences in different disciplines, such as the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR), Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS), and the Association for Psychology (APA) Global Summit, and to present an oral presentation at the Arizona Physiological Society Annual (AZPS) Meeting. She has been recognized for her work in research, such as being recognized for 1st Place in Physiology of Aging ePoster & eOral (2nd Annual Brazilian Scientific Journey on Mitochondrial Deregulation) and as a 2024 Galileo Circle Scholar.

Besides being an Undergraduate Research Ambassador, she also works closely with the Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB) Advising Office as a MCB Ambassadors in order to increase accessibility of biological-based research opportunities to underclassmen. Outside of campus, she works as a medical assistant and caregiver for both 1:1 care, memory care, home health, and in an assisted living facility. She also volunteers as a Crisis Victim Advocate with the Pima County Attorney Office in the Victims Services Division. In her community, she is also a student organizer for on-campus, local, and national issues. Outside of academics, she enjoys exploring the local scenes of Tucson, such as attending concerts, festivals, fairs, and markets with her friends. In her community, she is also a student organizing for on-campus, local, and national issues.