Colleges : * Campus scene : IRVINE : Student to Present Paper at Convention

Both the spotted owl and the loggers who work in the endangered bird’s habitat have a defender in Nhu-Ngoc Thuy Ong.

The 17-year-old graduate of Irvine’s Woodbridge High School has studied both sides of the environmental issue and crafted a compromise. She will present her findings at next year’s meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science.

Dealing with complicated topics is not new to Nhu-Ngoc, who emigrated from Saigon with her parents three years ago. Her first U.S. challenge was the language. Though she had learned English from a tutor in Vietnam, she was baffled by the slang used by American teen-agers.

Undaunted, she focused on her studies, and last year she was named a Young Scholar by the National Science Foundation and recommended to Virginia Carson, co-chair of Chapman University’s biology department, for a mentorship. She soon discovered that the technical terminology she needed to know for her scientific research was like yet another language.

Despite that, her research paper, “Computer Simulations of the Spotted Owl’s Dependence on the Old-Growth Forests,” won her the recognition of the science association.

Nhu-Ngoc compared learning technical language to gaining appreciation for classical music. “When you first listen to Mozart, you might not like it at all,” she said. “But then you get used to it, and it’s beautiful.”

Carson, her mentor, said of the young scholar’s comparison: “Nhu is being very modest about the difficulty of reading scientific English. Even my college students . . . need some time to get used to it. I was very impressed.”

Between now and February, when the science convention will take place in Baltimore, Nhu-Ngoc will be attending Cal State Fullerton and working to raise the money for her trip to the East Coast.