Plano native wins Fulbright for Parkinson’s research in Wales

A Plano graduate is carrying a North Texas academic track to an international neuroscience lab. Sarp Sahin, who graduated from Liberty High School in Plano and earned his degree from Washington and Lee University in 2026, received a Fulbright Cardiff University Award that will send him to Wales for graduate study focused on Parkinson’s disease.

The award will cover the first year of a taught master’s or research degree at Cardiff University. Sahin plans to pursue a master of philosophy in clinical neurosciences this fall, working with Professor Caleb Webber to study how Parkinson’s disease affects dopamine-producing neurons through advanced single-cell RNA sequencing techniques.

Sahin’s path has been built on a broad research base that blends chemistry, data science, bioinformatics and biomechanics. Washington and Lee said he majored in chemistry with a minor in data science, and that he already had four peer-reviewed publications, four oral presentations and four poster presentations at national conferences before the Fulbright was announced.

His most recent recognition came on May 21, 2026, when he was named the 2026 Omicron Delta Kappa National Leader of the Year for Academics and Research. He also co-authored a study published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology earlier this year, adding another credential to a record that has already put him on a global academic path before medical school.

For Plano and the broader Collin County school pipeline, Sahin’s award shows how a student can move from local classrooms to internationally recognized medical research. The Fulbright program has facilitated more than 400,000 academic and professional exchanges across 162 countries since 1946, a scale that underscores why the scholarship remains one of the most prestigious routes for advanced study and cultural exchange.

Sahin’s work in Cardiff will focus on a disease that affects thousands of families and requires years of careful research to better understand. For the schools and universities that shaped him, his Fulbright is a concrete example of how a Plano education can lead to research with consequences far beyond Texas.