Hi, I'm Van Quynh! You can call me Van or Van QT for short. I'm a scientist and artist who's spent over a decade across academia, government, and industry. Outside of work, I surf, rock climb, mountain bike, make crowdsourced sculptures, community-build, and once bike toured across the United States. Born in rural Vietnam, raised in Florida, currently in Philadelphia.
This site is my attempt to collect all of my side quests into one pretty fun place, sorted by whichever hat I'm wearing. Pick one above to see what's underneath.
June — My paper, "Multi-Agent AI Systems Need Institutional Design, Not Just Model-Level Alignment," accepted as a Spotlight Paper at the Trustworthy AI for Good Workshop at ICML 2026.
May — Awarded the Advanced Scientific Computing Certificate from the UPenn School of Engineering & Applied Science.
Early May — My abstract, "Learning in public, losing in private? How AI chatbots and LLMs are reshaping bioinformatics culture," accepted for both a talk and poster at the Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) 2026, held at the 34th Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB).
April — Played on Craft Women's Team at South Africa's Nationals Competition for Ultimate Frisbee.
April — Our paper, "PaperMentor: A Human-Centered Multi-Agent Writing Tutor for AI Research Papers in Overleaf," accepted to the ACL 2026 System Demonstrations track.
Late March — Briefly donned my "Professor Van" hat & gave a guest lecture, "Part II: Contemporary Thoughts on 'Ethnicity'," to Prof. Fred Dickinson's Pacific Worlds: Vietnam course.
Mid-March — Played on Craft Women's Team at Regionals Ultimate Frisbee Competition, advancing to Nationals!
March — My paper, "Prompt injection of OpenAI custom GPTs leaks informatics secrets," accepted for a talk at the American Medical Informatics Association's (AMIA) 2026 Amplify Informatics Conference in Denver, CO.
Late February — Invited to join the 2026 Organizing Committee for the Trustworthy AI for Social Good Workshop at ICML in Seoul, Korea.
February — My bioinformatics "Eras Tour" paper was accepted in the 25th Anniversary edition of Briefings in Bioinformatics (in press).
Late January — Started my AI residency in Cape Town, South Africa, supported by the inaugural Cooperative AI Research Fellowship. Among the top 1% of applicants globally.
January — Finishing up final tasks to publish my remaining thesis projects.
Late December — Presented our LLM tool-calling benchmark results at the IEEE BIBM International Conference on Bioinformatics & Biomedicine in Wuhan, China. Supported by GAPSA PGLA and Penn's Biomedical Graduate Studies Travel Funds.
Mid-December — Invited to join the 2026 Organizing Committee for the Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC).
Early December — Successfully defended my PhD dissertation, "Artificial Intelligence Strategies for Advancing Bioinformatics Infrastructure and Ecosystems," at the University of Pennsylvania.
Early November — Awarded the President Gutmann Leadership Award by the Penn Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
Late October — Invited to submit to a special issue of Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) Journal.
Early October — Gave a session talk, "ToolsyBio: LLM Retrieval for Conversational Bioinformatics Tool Discovery," at the US Research Software Engineering (USRSE) Association's annual conference in Philadelphia, PA. Supported by the Ritchie Lab.
August — Invited to submit to the Special 25th Anniversary Collection in Briefings in Bioinformatics.
June — My paper, "ToolsyBio: A retrieval-augmented generation system for navigating the bioinformatics software landscape," was accepted for a talk and the Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of the US Research Software Engineer Association (USRSE'25), Philadelphia, PA.
May–November — Invited to join the Women in HPC (WHPC) Workshop Organizing Committee.
March–May — Invited to join the 2025 Review Committee for the Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC).
Late January — Our hackathon team won 1st place for our AI agent project at the Immune Health Hackathon.
Early January — Completed all requirements and submitted my MA thesis, "A Statistical Exploration of Large Language Models: Evolution, Challenges, and Global Concerns," to the Wharton Department of Statistics and Data Science.
2024
December — Exhibited my painterly relief textile sculpture, "Dear A.I., Please Help Me Fill In My Village Memories," at the Resource Exchange's ReCreate Gallery (Dec 9, 2024 – Feb 26, 2025).
August–October — Lived in Vietnam for 3 months setting up a cross-cultural qualitative study on Vietnam's AI, bioinformatics, and digital infrastructure.
August — Presented interim results with my team at the AI for Health Equity Symposium / AIM-AHEAD Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
Mid-May — Awarded the inaugural Penn Global Dissertation Grant by the Offices of the Vice Provosts for Global Initiatives and Education.
Early May — After a competitive selection process among 500 art pieces and 130 artists, my AI art piece was among the chosen for the yearlong "2024–2025 Celebration of Art and Life Exhibition" at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Unfortunately, due to framing cost constraints, I had to withdraw the artwork.
April — Exhibited my AI art piece in the final exhibition for the "AI in Art" course at the University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman Hall Lobby.
February — Began the Traineeship in Advanced Data Analysis hosted by the NIH AIM-AHEAD and NCATS Programs for underrepresented AI/ML researchers.
January — My application to the Fulbright-National Geographic Award Program advanced to Semi-Finalist status.
2023
December — Presented my research at the NeurIPS AI4Science Workshop.
November — Accepted the ACM SIGHPC Award onstage at SC23 in Denver, CO, which drew over 13,000 attendees in the computing field.
August — Awarded the inaugural Graduate Leadership and Engagement Award at the Penn Genomics & Computational Biology (GCB) Graduate Group and Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI) Annual Retreat in the Poconos, PA.
June — Started an internship at Eli Lilly & Company at the Lilly Biotechnology Center in San Diego, CA.
May — Invited to attend the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Learning Health Systems (SAIL). Travel supported by the Ritchie Lab and Penn's Biomedical Graduate Studies Career Development Fund.
February — Attended the 6-Day Stillpond Computational Cytometry Data Analysis Workshop.
September — Submitted our chapter for review in the Current Protocols for Human Genetics Journal.
August — Awarded the Excedr Travel Grant to attend the inaugural Nucleate Summit in Boston, MA.
August — Abstract accepted at the American Society for Human Genetics Conference in Los Angeles, CA.
July — Attended the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCiS) Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA. Systems Immunology Course & Big Data in Immunology Course.
June — Became a dual-degree PhD/MA Candidate with Penn Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School of Business.
May — Successfully passed the Genomics & Computational Biology PhD Candidacy Exams.
April — Invited Speaker at the 2022 Catalyzing Change: Curriculum to Career, Building a Diverse and Equitable STEM Talent Pipeline.
January — Abstract accepted at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing in Kona, Hawai'i.
2021
June — Awarded the Galaxy Conference Fellowship in honor of Dr. James Taylor, supporting trainees in genomics and data-intensive science, by the Galaxy Genomics Community Fund.
August — Inducted into the Fontaine Society with PhD training support from the Fontaine PhD Fellowship, awarded by the University of Pennsylvania to support PhD students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Late May — Graduated from Johns Hopkins with my MS in Biotechnology with concentrations in Bioinformatics and Molecular Targets & Drug Discovery.
DissertationTruong, V.Q. Artificial intelligence strategies for advancing global bioinformatics infrastructure and ecosystems. Ph.D. dissertation, Perelman School of Medicine, Penn, 2026.
1st authorTruong & Ritchie. Eras of bioinformatics technologies from command-line to AI chatbots. Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2026 (in press).
1st authorTruong & Ritchie. Prompt injection of OpenAI custom GPTs leaks informatics secrets. AMIA, 2026 (in press).
Co-author Liu, Zhang, Faulkner, Huang, Zouhar, Glandorf, Dahlgren, Dagli, Chen, Leeb, Truong, et al. PaperMentor: A human-centered multi-agent writing tutor for AI research papers in Overleaf. ACL (System Demonstrations), 2026.
Co-author Peyton, Chung, Mohanty, Truong, et al. A blueprint for open science: how transatlantic teams built and deployed knowledge graphs to enable biological (AI) models. BioHackrXiv, 2025.
Cooperative AI Research Fellowship12 of 1,100+ globally · 2026
President Amy Gutmann Leadership Award2025
Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship1 of 36 globally · 2022–25
ACM SIGHPC Computational & Data Science Fellowship1 of 6 globally · 2023–25
NIH AIM-AHEAD & NCATS Data Analytics Training Grant1 of 50 · 2024
Inaugural Penn Global Dissertation Grant1 of 11 · 2024
Fulbright U.S. Open Study/Research AwardSemifinalist · 2024
Inaugural Leadership & Engagement Award1 of 3 · 2023
Women in Bio National Impact Scholarship1 of 6 nationwide · 2019
NIH-NCI & Johns Hopkins Biotechnology Fellowship1 of 3 · 2018
O. Ruth McQuown Women's Leadership Award1 of 7 · 2017
mixed media creative
As a kid, art helped me understand the world. When we came to the US, I keenly remember my parents worrying about whether our new country and culture would understand or even accept us. While my parents worked 6-7 nights/week, I was often holed away constantly experimenting, drawing, and recreating the things I saw outside our home and in the books we borrowed from our nail salon customers.
In college when I was struggling to keep up in my 600-person college lecture courses, I started writing out my science notes into the format of famous paintings (like Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night). These moments sparked my passion for bringing art and science into public places via crowdsourced sculptures, interactive data visualizations, and asking questions on how we can better cultivate creativity + innovation in everyday life.
work in progress — more soon ✿
In the press
The whiteboard paintings and rubber-band Mona Lisa got picked up a few places.
The Gainesville Sun — “Thinking in the Arts and Sciences StudioLab Exhibit” (saltwater intrusion piece) & “UF students' community projects gain financial support” (rubber band sculpture)
The Daytona Beach News-Journal — “A holiday from books, but not from boredom” (seaweed Mona Lisa)
Featured exhibitions
2024
Dear A.I., Please Help Me Fill In My Childhood Memories
Textile painterly relief piece woven with plastic grocery bags, inspired by the reed mats of my village. Made partly with AI assistance. Addresses cultural preservation amid urbanization and technology.
Resource Exchange · Dec 2024 – Feb 2025
2019
Three interactive science exhibits
NIH/NCI workshop with Dr. Chanelle Case-Borden — participants built "surgical tools" to dissect cells. Co-hosted a hands-on workshop table at the National Library of Medicine.
NYC Photoville multisensory tasting exhibit with NY Academy of Sciences and Guerilla Science.
D.C. CivicFest — solving science trivia through drawing.
2018
VR disaster response simulation
Virginia Tech SEAD grant project. Participants explore decision-making in post-bomb-detonation D.C.
2017
TEDxUF connect-the-dots alligator
1,200+ participants connected numbered dots on an 8' × 8' collaborative canvas.
2016
What Makes You..?
Public plaza interactive data-viz survey with keyword nodes where participants used colorful yarn to connect words describing ideas, feelings, and beliefs they feel connected to on a 7' × 8' canvas.
UF Fine Arts College — a saltwater intrusion sculpture made of recycled materials, exhibited in the "Thinking in the Arts and Sciences StudioLab" show.
2015
Mona Lisa, in rubber bands
A 6' × 8' canvas filled in by passers-by — 14,000 rubber bands over two weeks at National Arts and Humanities Month.
Same year: DNA Gator, a 6' × 8' piece where participants filled in genetic sequences (A, T, C, G). Also curated an outdoor tree gallery.
2014–16
Science lecture-note paintings
Whiteboard recreations of Starry Night, Van Gogh's Self-Portrait, and Munch's The Scream, using biology, chemistry, and physics course notes. Displayed in UF libraries and museum events.
2013
Half a dozen paintings with 3-D sculpted elements
International Baccalaureate exhibition at Bethune Cookman University.
Sci-Art — scientific illustration
I believe art can bridge scientific understanding in beautiful ways. During my undergraduate, I started a scientific illustration business as an undergrad — partly to explore research, partly to offset college costs as a first-gen student. I no longer take commmisions, but art still finds its way into my scientific presentations and papers.
NIH National Cancer Institute — symposium poster commissioned by Dr. Giorgio Trinchieri, Chief of the Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, for the Cancer and Inflammation: From Micro to Macro Symposium (2019)
Veterinary orthopedics textbook — figures 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.9, 4.10 in Biedrzycki, Locking Plates in Veterinary Orthopedics (Wiley, 2018)
Neuroregenerative nutrition — Steindler & Reynolds, Advances in Nutrition (2017)
Alzheimer's stress-signaling research — Futch, Croft, Truong et al., Molecular Neurodegeneration (2017)
Mosquito sculptures — functional 3D models of Aedes aegypti for press interviews, commissioned by Dr. Brad Willenberg (UCF)
Patent illustrations — US Patent #9,258,988 B2 (2016)
Graphic design
Logos and t-shirts for labs, schools, sports teams, and clubs. Most photos still to dig up from old folders.
Surf club logo & t-shirt2025
Ritchie Lab logo redesign~2022 · tbd
Spruce Creek class shirt2017
Spruce Creek class shirt2016
Spruce Creek class shirt2015
Spruce Creek class shirt2014
Hope for Japan tsunami relief~2014 · tbd
Spruce Creek class shirt2013
Creek basketball team shirt2013–17
Creek track & field shirt2013–17
Creekside Middle 8th grade shirt2008
More club & org shirtsto dig up
multi-sport athlete
I'm a big team sports girl. I think there's something really magical about competing with your team towards a common goal. Sometimes you end up on a team that gets assembled quite randomly from a rag tag crew of total strangers that you may honestly never see again. Life and work are just like that. We never know how much time we have each other other. You just have to find a way to communicate on the field, cheer each other on, and work through your own personal defeats.
Some sports, like cycling, surfing, running, and maybe even rock climbing, fit the bill as solo sports. But actually, there's a huge community aspect to each of these and even when you're facing something by yourself, you have to rewire your inner critic so that you become your own best teammate and coach. If not you, then who?
work in progress — more soon ✿
Bike touring
Summer 2014
5,000 miles across the U.S., solo, at 19
5,000
miles
89
days
13
states
$2k+
raised
Seattle → Florida (arrived in time for my mom's birthday). Biking, camping, occasional hitchhiking. Fundraised for the Alexander Hamilton Scholars Program — which had selected me as 1 of 35 scholars from a national pool two years earlier.
Route: WA · OR · ID · MT · WY · CO · KS · MO · IL · KY · TN · MS · AL · FL
Mostly local trails, mostly downhill. Recipient of the Andrea Gonzalez (AG) FTWNB Memorial Scholarship at the Radical Adventure Riders NE Area Retreat (Aug 2025).
Philly MTB Devo Philadelphia, PA · 2025
Surfing
Founded the Penn Grad Surf Club in 2025 as President & Founder. Surf whenever I'm near saltwater — Philly day-trips, Cape Town breaks, the Vietnamese coast.
Ultimate frisbee
Pickup to nationals, Florida to Cape Town. Highlights: D-I USA College Nationals with Penn Women's Venus (2021); South African Open & Women's Nationals in Cape Town (2026). Played through a shoulder injury from a car-bike accident.
UF social pick-up Gainesville, FL · 2014–2017
Blacksburg social pick-up Blacksburg, VA · 2017–2018
Blacksburg / Christiansburg Frisbee League Roanoke Valley, VA · 2018?
WAFC Washington, D.C. · 2018 or 2019?
Hyattsville social pick-up Greenbelt Park, MD · 2018–2020?
PADA Summer League Philadelphia Area Disc Alliance · Philadelphia, PA · 2021?
Venoid social pick-up Philadelphia, PA · 2021–2022
Penn Women's "Venus" Ultimate Frisbee Team Philadelphia, PA · 2021
D-I USA College Nationals Championship Ontario, CA · Dec 2021
Hit by a car two weeks prior — left shoulder (dominant throwing arm) injured. Went on the field for a couple of points; didn't realize how injured I was until weeks later in physical therapy. Didn't score, but the memories are forever.
Social pick-up Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam · 2024
Clifton 1st Beach social pick-up Cape Town, South Africa · 2026
South Africa Open & Women's Regionals Cape Town, South Africa · Mar 28–29, 2026
South Africa Open & Women's Nationals (Craft) Cape Town, South Africa · Apr 25–27, 2026
Penn Park social pick-up Philadelphia, PA · 2026–present
Touch rugby
Wharton Women's Rugby — went out to try a different sport while taking a 5-year break from ultimate frisbee, and stayed for the camaraderie and friendships with other graduate women. Nominated as co-president for the 2024–2025 season, but stepped back since I'd be missing half the season for fieldwork in Vietnam. Returned for a third season on the exec board in 2025–2026 — coached a lot and effectively served as co-captain.
2023–2024 season HogFest champions!!
2024–2025 season missed Fall for Vietnam fieldwork — spring socials photos to come
2025–2026 season
Tore both quads sprinting and practicing too hard the week of HogFest — ended up having to sit out after the 1st HogFest game, but supported the team by coaching from the sidelines.
Rock climbing
Indoor when the weather's bad, outdoor when it's not.
Trail running
Hitting the trails — races and training runs.
Two Oceans Marathon — 16 km Trail Run Cape Town, South Africa · Apr 2026
outdoors & wild
Growing up in Florida, I took for granted the nature around me because hiking, camping, and outdoorsy activities looked totally different than what's sold to us in the media. It took traveling to other states with big mountains and totally different terrain to appreciate what I had back home. More than a decade after college, I discovered that my family had a deeper connection to nature than I ever realized.
From a young age, I learned from oral histories and local knowledge passed down through generations. I watched my parents safely forage for watercress in municipal watersheds. Each winter, I saw the delight on my extended family's faces when giant jellyfish blooms washed ashore and we'd get to enjoy the seasonal Viet-style jellyfish salad. My friend took me foraging a few times and then I kept learning on my own when I started seeing patterns between what I'd harvest and my mom + aunties' own familiarity in Vietnamese to these plants.
work in progress — more soon ✿
Foraging
Mushrooms, berries, herbs — whatever the season offers.
Hiking
Day hikes and trail days — a running log (placeholder for now).
Hike
Mileage
Year
Hiking buddies
Trail name TBD
— mi
TBD
TBD
Trail name TBD
— mi
TBD
TBD
Trail name TBD
— mi
TBD
TBD
Backpacking
Trip by trip — photos to come.
Grayson Highlands with Ilan B. · 2017
UF OAR Club 2014–2017
Shenandoah National Park with Brandon J., Sheets & co · Mar 2019
Alaska with Jamie L. · May 2018
Virgin Falls, Tennessee with Ethan K. & Edith P. · 2017?
Black Balsam Knob with Brandon J. · year tbd
Pinnacle Peak, PA with Brandon J., Erica S., Carter M. · Aug 2020?
stuck in an infinite scroll loop
This is the home base for the things I publish myself: visual essays, research notes, field observations, videos, and the occasional internet rabbit hole.
C:\\VAN\\BLOGS — File Explorer_ □ ×
address
C:\\VAN\\BLOGS\\
The blog
Longer-form writing lives here: art experiments, AI and culture, research in progress, travel notes, and interactive things that deserve more than a caption.
.jpg)
