Kelly Wang

Kelly hopes to become a physician/scientist, and is currently focused on genetics and neuroscience. However, she has also become aware of the importance of communication in medicine. Her parents are immigrants from Taiwan with limited English. When her mother had to undergo major surgery for the first time, Kelly found herself in the role of translator. What was already a traumatic experience for her mother was compounded by difficulties both in understanding the procedures she was undergoing and in communicating with the medical staff.

Another discovery Kelly made while doing research on campus is how much energy the science labs require. She learned that research laboratories account for two-thirds of a university’s energy consumption, which inspired her to explore ways that this could be mitigated. That realization inspired her to work “on a project identifying ways that we could incentivize addressing UCSD’s research emissions.”

The research that Kelly is already doing in genetics and neuroscience as an undergraduate is difficult to translate into lay terms, but is clearly impressive.  She was awarded the Summer URS Ledell Family Research Scholarship for Science and Engineering in order to perform undergraduate research. It came with a stipend of $6000. Kelly also participates in the PATHS Scholars Program, and is currently working in the Ferguson Lab on campus. Last year she completed the Research Methodology Training Laboratory (RMTL) Program.

She serves on the Health and Medical Professions Preparation Program Service Subcommittee, is Podcast Manager for the Saltman Quarterly, and serves as a peer mentor for two PATHS scholars. As a Seventh College Orientation Assistant she was able to “help incoming students feel more supported in this large environment.” On the clinical medicine side, she volunteers at Scripps Green Hospital in the Urgent Care department, and conducts clinical research in the Emergency Medicine department. When reading about each of these impressive activities one can only be in awe of how this very busy young woman also manages to earn top grades in her demanding science classes.

Kelly hopes to “bridge the gap between areas of unmet medical need with research that will help characterize and develop treatments for these currently incurable disease pathologies.”