About Vu Nguyen

Biography

Vietnam - Where I'm from and How I grew up

I was born into a coffee-farming family in the mountainous highlands of tea and coffee in Bảo Lộc, Lâm Đồng, Việt Nam.

Growing up as a soccer-loving kid and a devoted fan of Man Utd (of course a CR7 fan as well), I used to invest thousands of hours playing FIFA, Age of Empires, and the fighting game series Guilty Gear, with Chipp Zanuff as the ultimate favorite character.

Apart from the coffee farm and video games, I stumbled upon a bit of an artistic sense for playing the piano and can manage a few simple Yiruma songs (though quite lazy lately).

As a student, I define myself as a lively, chatty, and ambivert guy throughout my 12 years of K-12 education.

I always wanted to leave my little hometown for higher education. At the age of 18, I went to Nhật Ngữ Đông Du to study Japanese and later on went abroad to Japan in 2015, starting a long yet still continued journey to date...

Education - What turns me into a Traveler

Let's start from the present and go back to the past.

I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah in Utah, USA, starting in 2021. My research focuses on Cardiovascular Engineering, specifically related to ischemic heart disease. I am working in a cell biology lab at the Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI), where I diligently contribute to advancing our understanding of cardiovascular health.

Before my doctoral journey, I earned a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Aichi, Japan. Initially aiming to become an engineer and work in the Japanese automobile industry (Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, you name it), I accidentally fell in love with biology after a short period of volunteering as a medical interpreter and a year researching the mechanical properties of vertebrate heart evolution. I had spent countless nights touching and examining the hearts of reptiles, with a special focus on my beloved Aodaishō snakes in a biomechanics lab.

It's also worth mentioning my first two years leaving Vietnam for Japan, during which I attended the Japanese School – The Naganuma School in Tokyo. Those two years prepared me for the Japanese language and high school subjects for Japanese university entrance exams. I am grateful for those hardest times in my life, as I had to adopt a disciplined, "athlete-like" routine – getting up every day at 2 am for two years straight to deliver Asahi Newspapers (to pay my bills, I was a self-funding student). Thanks to it, I developed my resilience and perseverance.

Writing - Why I decided to have this blog

In essence, this blog is to share what I've learned.

Accumulating knowledge every day feels incomplete without giving back.

I love science; that's why I am doing my PhD. But I don't like to be, nor do I see myself as, ONLY a scientist. I consider writing and sharing what I've learned over almost 30 years of my life as the best initial step toward becoming a ... (for now, I'll keep this secret for myself ) aside from engaging in science.

Covering a range of niche topics like Biochemistry, as well as broader subjects such as language studies, culture, and people in different countries, I hope you find something helpful for yourself after each visit to my site :)

Happy reading!