Interdisciplinary environment and faculty expertise inspire student's move to Minnesota
Hyeonjeong Jeong seated in front of a biosafety cabinet.
Electrical engineering Ph.D. student Hyeongjeong Jeong credits the college's interdisciplinary environment as one reason she chose the University of Minnesota. Photo by Roopa Sukumaran Berzins.

Grad student Hyeonjeong Jeong is helping to detect neurodegenerative diseases earlier

South Korea isn’t that different from Minnesota, if you ask Hyeonjeong Jeong. Both have good food, winters, and very smart people you want to learn from. Jeong, a Ph.D. student in the College of Science and Engineering, left her home country and switched her field of study—from physics to electrical engineering—to follow her faculty advisor from Seoul National University to the Twin Cities campus. 

“I thought my advisor’s move would be a good opportunity for me to broaden my perspective and interact with experts from other disciplines,” said Jeong, of Associate Professor Hye Yoon Park, who joined the college’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in 2022. 

Jeong was recently recognized with a Trainee Professional Development Award by the Society for Neuroscience for “exceptional research achievements in neuroscience.” 

As part of her win, she presented her work with Capillary-enhanced Quaking-Induced Conversion or Cap-QuIC. The visual diagnostic technique, first developed by a University of Minnesota team that includes Jeong’s advisor, holds potential for the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and ALS.

Jeong, a recipient of the Dr. Krzysztof K. Burhardt and April L. Spas Fellowship, explains the impact of her research in the video below.

Read more about her journey on the ECE website. 

Story by Pauline Oo, with interviews by Katelyn Mayne and Roopa Sukumaran Berzins.

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