Cal State L.A.’s Ng heads to med school
as Phi Kappa Phi fellow

Los Angeles, CA – Cal State L.A. biology major Timothy W. Ng (Duarte, CA resident) is one of only 60 students nationwide to be awarded a prestigious Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship for the 2007-2008 academic year. In receiving the $5,000 award, Ng becomes the eighth Cal State L.A. student in the past ten years to be selected for the Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship.

Ng—who will complete his bachelor’s degree in biology and minors in mathematics and Chinese this spring—will begin attending the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine next month.

Ng, 22, plans to pursue a career in academic medicine. In his personal statement, he wrote: “While I would like to work primarily as a clinician, I also want to pursue research projects that interest me, and train a new generation of physicians.” Ultimately, he hopes to work at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

Phi Kappa Phi is the oldest and largest national honor society dedicated to the recognition and promotion of academic excellence in all fields of higher education. Its fellowships are based on applicants’ undergraduate academic performance; leadership and service on the campus and in the community; evidence of graduate potential; a personal statement of educational purpose; and performance, citizenship and character.

Ng took advantage of Cal State L.A.’s Early Entrance Program to start college early—at age 14. EEP admits extraordinarily gifted youngsters—some as young as 11—directly into college, providing the early entrants with monitored evaluation, regular counseling sessions, and the opportunity to study with like-minded peers.

Since his freshman year at Cal State L.A., Ng has participated in the University’s General Education Honors (GEH) program, which provides highly qualified students with enriched intellectual activities through a challenging curriculum that includes honors classes, seminars, and research.

Philip S. LaPolt, chair of the Biological Sciences Department at Cal State L.A., called Ng a “very bright, mature and enthusiastic student.”

Ng works at the City of Hope Beckman Research Institute, focusing on ways to apply gene therapy to HIV treatments. He previously interned at California Institute of Technology, where he used bioinformatics to perform comparative genome analysis.

Actively involved on campus, Ng works with the group Chicanos for Creative Medicine to increase advocacy for underserved medical communities and to mentor pre-medical students; and he helped to organize a medical mission to Tijuana, Mexico. He also has served as rushing secretary for the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity and social chair for the Early Entrance Program Club.

Off campus, he volunteered at the L.A. County-USC Hospital in various capacities, visited convalescent homes, helped clean up neighborhoods, read to children at a local library and organized holiday events. In his spare time, he enjoys practicing martial arts and listening to classical music.

According to Donald Paulson, emeritus professor of chemistry, “For the past year Tim has used his science knowledge to teach organic and general chemistry as well as math and physics for the Princeton Review. He enjoys his teaching experience immensely, and his students have made marked improvements in their scores on the standardized exams.”

Silvia Heubach, associate chair of the Cal State L.A. Mathematics Department, added, “With a sharp mind that probes deeply to ask the right questions, a strong interest to keep learning about new advances in science, good interpersonal skills and an ability to connect easily with other people, he will make an excellent physician and medical researcher.”

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 190,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, to be housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu

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