Franklin double major Yeongseo Son named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar

2025 University of Georgia graduate, scientist and storyteller in training Yeongseo Son has been selected for the 2025 Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, a global graduate-level program at Stanford University.

Son, 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, attended high school in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and graduated from UGA on May 9. Son is UGA’s fourth Knight-Hennessy Scholar:

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.

Congratulations to Son, our newest Knight-Hennessy Scholar who's success expresses the power of the arts AND sciences in a way that is all her own. Kudos to the Franklin units who played a part in her journey to the upper echelon of prestigious scholarships – the departments of anthropology, biochemistry and molecular biology, and cellular biology – a literal ABC of how to construct an outstanding UGA experience.

Image: Yeongseo Son