Chloe Chung, a PhD student on the Biomedical Engineering track in the College of Graduate Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), is one of 150 female doctoral students in the United States and Canada selected to receive a $15,000 P.E.O. Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood. She was sponsored by Chapter A of Memphis, Tennessee.
The P.E.O. Scholar Awards were established in 1991 to provide substantial merit-based awards for women of the United States and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral-level degree at an accredited college or university. P.E.O. stands for Philanthropic Educational Organization. Scholar Awards recipients are a select group of women chosen for their high level of academic achievement and their potential for having a positive impact on society.
Chung conducts research under the mentorship of her adviser, Denis J. DiAngelo, PhD, UTHSC Distinguished Professor in Biomechanics and director of the Orthopedic BioRobotics and Rehabilitation Laboratory in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at UTHSC. Her research focuses on the study and development of surgical and non-surgical medical devices. She graduated from UTHSC in 2015 with her Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. For her early graduate research, she received the Outstanding Master Thesis Award given by the Tennessee Conference of Graduate Schools.
Chung chose to pursue her doctorate and continue her research in the UTHSC Orthopedic BioRobotics and Rehabilitation Laboratory. Chung has worked with fellow scientists, clinicians, and practitioners to create new medical device technology for skeletal deformities and degenerative joint diseases of the spine, foot, and ankle. In 2017, she co-founded the start-up company “EMBrace Design” with Dr. DiAngelo and another graduate student to transition this new orthopedic technology out of the laboratory and into the market.
Chung, originally from New York, attended Christian Brothers University and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2013. While at UTHSC, she has received the Joe and Pat Johnson UTAA Scholarship and Edward and Bernice Humphrey Scholarship, among many other honors.
The P.E.O. Sisterhood, founded January 21, 1869, at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, is a philanthropic educational organization dedicated to supporting higher education for women. There are approximately 6,000 local chapters in the United States and Canada with nearly a quarter of a million active members.