University of Pennsylvania Class of 2023 graduate Hoang C. Le has received a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a merit-based program that provides graduate school funding for immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States.
He is among the 30 chosen as 2025 P.D. Soros Fellows from 2600+ applicants. Each Fellow receives as much as $90,000 for graduate studies. Currently, he is a first-year Ph.D. student studying molecular and computational biology at Columbia University. During his Ph.D., Le aims to systematically explore the evolution of viral-host interactions to uncover novel molecular tools and therapeutic targets.
Le graduated summa cum laude from Penn with bachelor’s degrees in computational biology and economics in the Roy & Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management, a dual-degree program between the School of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton School. He was the student Commencement speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Born in Vietnam, Le is the son of Vietnamese refugees whose parents’ early lives were shaped by the Vietnam War. After immigrating to the United States, Le’s family moved often, eventually settling in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. They had limited English proficiency and faced constant socioeconomic hardship, Le says, which exposed him to the “stark inequities that marginalized communities often endure,” particularly on display at the nail salons where his parents worked.
Le entered Penn as a Questbridge Scholar, was a 2020-21 U.N. Millenium Fellow, and was on the 2021-22 team that won the Y-Prize competition for an idea using novel steerable needle technology. Le was co-editor-in-chief of the Synapse student publication and worked on different global health initiatives helping improve access to healthcare and diagnostics. Le also co-led the development of the Life Sciences and Management Pipeline Program at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, a two-year program for West Philadelphia high school students to learn about the intersection of science, medicine, and business.
Interested in exploring the biology of gene editing systems and to possibly uncover new ones, Le began working with Samuel Sternberg at Columbia University during his second year at Penn to bioinformatically study CRISPR systems, their evolution, and their ancient biological roles. His research resulted in coauthored publications in Nature and Science. Le also worked with Ophir Shalem at the Perelman School of Medicine to develop new CRISPR-based screening technologies to study neurodegeneration. His undergraduate work won the Vagelos Prize for Achievement in Scientific Research.
Le is Penn’s 25th Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow since the fellowship program was founded in 1998.
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