Brian Vu Received $20,000 from Fellowship

Brian-Tinh Vu (’20), a graduate the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the Honors College, has been named a Marcus L. Urann Fellow by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. A physics major with a minor in mathematics, Vu will receive $20,000 to support his bioengineering doctoral program which will start this fall at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the third UH student to become a Marcus L. Urann Fellow in the last four years.

Vu’s strong record of research and accomplishments in the classroom made him an ideal nominee for the PKP Fellowship competition. Among his many achievements, he spent all four years of his undergraduate career at UH conducting research as part of Donald Kouri’s research team in the Department of Physics.

In his sophomore year, he independently proposed and executed a research project on generalized Gaussian quadrature. Vu has also received a number of scholarships and fellowships that demonstrate the quality of his research, including the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the American Association for Physicists in Medicine’s Summer Undergraduate Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

“Receiving the Urann Fellowship has been the culmination of my efforts as part of the Honors College at the University of Houston,” Brian said. “In my application, I wrote about the lessons I learned in the Human Situation from reading Homer’s Iliad, and I connected its themes of familial and societal responsibility to my decision to pursue medical imaging as a field of research.”

Through his doctoral program, he aims to work on improving medical imaging technologies using his mathematics and physics background.

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi currently awards 50 Fellowships of $8,500 each, six at $20,000 each, and two at $35,000 each to members entering the first year of graduate or professional study. Each active Phi Kappa Phi chapter may select one candidate from among its local applicants to compete for the Society-wide awards.

Established in 1932, the Fellowship Program annually provides funding to first-year graduate students who are pursuing post-baccalaureate degrees across all academic disciplines. Endorsed by their local chapter, Phi Kappa Phi Fellows go on to study at some of the nation’s top graduate schools.

Graduating seniors interested in applying for a PKP fellowship should contact Ben Rayder, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards.

- Ben Rayder, UH Honors College