A scientist and storyteller in training, the University of Georgia’s Yeongseo Son has been selected for the 2025 Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, a global graduate-level program at Stanford University.
Son, who attended high school in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, graduated from UGA on May 9. Now an alumna of the Morehead Honors College, she is a Foundation Fellow and Stamps Scholar who earned bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and biochemistry and molecular biology as well as a certificate in immunology, all from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Established in 2016, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program provides full funding for graduate students as they pursue studies ranging from medicine and law to doctoral programs as well as joint- and dual-degrees. The program is designed to prepare students to take leadership roles in finding creative solutions to complex global issues.
Son is UGA’s fourth Knight-Hennessy Scholar.
“From her first days at the University of Georgia, Yeongseo has been committed to making a difference through her research, and the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship is a wonderful recognition of the devotion she puts into her work,” said Meg Amstutz, dean of the Morehead Honors College. “Yeongseo has shown her brilliance as a scientist even as an undergraduate, and we are excited to see the impact she will have on advancing lung health.”
Yeongseo Son (Photo by Stephanie Schupska)
Son will pursue a Ph.D. in immunology from the Stanford University School of Medicine. She plans to research how the immune system interacts with the environment, particularly within the lungs, to improve global respiratory health. Her goal is to integrate other scientific disciplines, such as developmental biology, and uncover molecular mechanisms behind lung dysfunction and lung immune environments. Ultimately, she wants to lead a lung immunology lab and establish a multidisciplinary lung health center.
“Exposed to the external environment, our lungs mount immune responses,” she explained. “Sometimes, they fail. Worldwide, chronic respiratory disease is a leading cause of death, and lung cancer is the deadliest cancer. Beyond my own fascination, understanding the lungs is incredibly important for the global community.”
Son has conducted research with faculty at UGA and Vanderbilt University.
With Balazs Rada, professor in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine’s department of infectious diseases, Son has researched a bacterial protein that can potentially be used to treat cystic fibrosis patients. With Jennifer Sucre, associate professor of pediatrics and cell and developmental biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, she characterized a novel mechanism of alveologenesis. With Suzanne Pilaar Birch, associate professor and director of the UGA Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Lab, she gained skills in analyzing Bronze Age teeth and bones from a variety of sites in Europe, including Spain, Italy and Cyprus.
Son spent a summer researching influenza T cell dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through the MIT Summer Research Program in biology. She is an author on three publications and has presented at 10 conferences including the CURO Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Immunologists, where she received the Young Scholars Award.
Committed to turning science into accessible stories, Son has interviewed Nobel Prize recipients and other scientists across the globe through the podcast “Let’s Talk Chemistry.” She was also an Honors teaching assistant in the Morehead Honors College, an associate director with PCRi Nonprofit, a student advisory board member for the Office of Instruction, editor-in-chief of UGA Stethoscope Magazine and gallery activities facilitator at the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture.
UGA’s Major Scholarships Office, housed in the Morehead Honors College, provides students across campus with assistance as they apply for national, high-level scholarships. For more information, contact Jessica Hunt at jhunt@uga.edu or visit https://honors.uga.edu/scholarships/external-scholarships/.
