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April 11, 2019

UA Junior Abhijay Murugesan Named Truman Scholar

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation announced that University of Arizona juniorAbhijay Murugesan has been awarded a Truman Scholarship, the nation's premier graduate fellowship for students pursuing careers as public service leaders.

Murugesan is majoring in public health and molecular and cellular biology, with a minor in biochemistry, in the UA Honors College. He is expected to complete his undergraduate studies in May 2020.

Truman Scholars receive a $30,000 scholarship toward graduate school and the opportunity to participate in professional development programming to help prepare them for careers in public service leadership.

The Truman Scholarship is the latest in a series of honors for Murugesan, who participated in the UA's KEYS Research Internship program and graduated as valedictorian of Cibola High School in Yuma, Arizona. He also was named a Flinn Scholar, a National Merit Scholar and a National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholar.

"As a KEYS high school student, Abhijay worked on a pilot project aimed at visualizing metabolic activity in insect brains," said Wulfila Gronenberg, a professor of neurology and ecology and evolutionary biology, who mentored Murugesan through his KEYS Research Internship at the UA BIO5 Institute. "His approach involved a number of techniques all new to him and quite demanding, certainly for a student just finishing high school. But then, he was not just any high school student, he was already a serious and budding researcher."

Murugesan, who hopes to attend medical school, is a certified emergency medical technician and is currently chief and executive director of the UA Emergency Medical Services. The UA EMS is a collegiate-based agency which operates round-the-clock, providing medical care at the basic-life-support level with medical direction from Banner-University Medical Group's emergency medicine physicians. The UA EMS provides medical 911 response to a daily average population of roughly 60,000 and sometimes more than 100,000 during special events.

"Abhijay is a dedicated and reliable leader who is invaluable in making the UA EMS a dependable and robust service," said Dr. Hans Bradshaw, assistant professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics, and medical director of the UA EMS. "Abhijay has helped develop two undergraduate internship courses and is the teaching assistant for both. He is also participating in a research project evaluating the UA Medical Amnesty Policy's effects on the prevalence of alcohol-related campus-based EMS calls.

"Abhijay is hard-working, innovative and committed to excellence," Bradshaw continued. "He has a genuine interest in becoming an emergency medicine physician, which I have no doubt he will achieve. He is truly a diamond in the rough."

This year, 840 Truman Scholar candidates were nominated by 346 colleges and universities, a record number of both applications and institutions. The 62 new Truman Scholars will receive their awards during a ceremony at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, on May 26.

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Media contact:
Stacy Pigott
University Communications
Office: 520-626-4405 | Cell: 520-539-4152
spigott@arizona.edu

Established in 1885, the University of Arizona, the state's super land-grant university with two medical schools, produces graduates who are real-world ready through its 100% Engagement initiative. Recognized as a global leader and ranked 16th for the employability of its graduates, the UA is also a leader in research, bringing more than $606 million in research investment each year, and ranking 21st among all public universities. The UA is advancing the frontiers of interdisciplinary scholarship and entrepreneurial partnerships, and is a member of the Association of American Universities, the 62 leading public and private