Thuy Phi

Thuy Phi (she/her/hers) is a native of San Jose, California, heading into her final year at De Anza-Foothill College in Cupertino, where she is majoring in biological sciences, public health sciences and design. During college, she served as a science return specialist at NASA, where she conducted research on utilizing the neutron spectrometer system to perform analysis on the lunar surface. The goal of this research was to determine the immediate regolith composition of useful metal oxides present in regolith for ionic liquid reaction. Specifically, her project focused on using ionic liquids to extract and refine metals from metal oxides in a closed loop reaction to produce materials such as aerospace fuel.

In addition to research, she has keen interests in innovation and bio-design; she participated as one of the lead designers in Hack the Hospital 5G Hackathon, where she and her team designed a UI app and UX experience to promote climate change awareness in children. As part of these efforts, she contributed to the overall development of the packaging product and UI app design. As an SCGB Undergraduate Research Fellow, Thuy will be joining the Raymond Lab at Stanford University under the guidance of Trace Stay. Her project will analyze neural networks that process vestibular signals encoding orientation and motion of head tilt and use those signals to guide body movements. During her free time, Thuy enjoys running, biking, swimming, writing poetry and quilling.

Mentor: Trace Stay