Damian Glumcher ’08, originally from Montevideo, Uruguay, is working toward a future that would not have been possible in his home country.

“I want to do both of the things I really like, practice medicine and research,” Glumcher says. “I want to be involved in the studies that allow you to develop new medicines.”

This biochemistry & molecular biology and neuroscience dual major plans to accomplish that by pursuing a dual M.D./Ph.D.

Glumcher is the recipient of the Global Campus Scholarship that helps to fund a growing partnership between Dickinson and selected schools in Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also received the John Dickinson Scholarship in recognition of his high academic achievement and the Inge Paul '58 and John R. Stafford '59 Scholarship, which is awarded to promising students in the life sciences. Glumcher used this endowed scholarship to spend a summer doing hands-on research at Princeton University.

Glumcher applied for and was accepted to Princeton’s eight week program funded by Research Experience for Undergraduates at the suggestion of Associate Professor of Biology Mike Roberts. The program is designed to involve students in meaningful projects designed to support their education in the sciences.

Leading the research project was Jacques Fresco, Princeton professor of molecular biology. Their study focused on the breaking of certain DNA sequences and the reactions caused by the process.

“My project,” Glumcher says, “was finding all of the sequences in DNA that could break and trying to figure out the biological function of this.”

In other words, Glumcher was beginning on his path to finding cures for diseases that afflict people around the world.

“I feel the college has given me a lot, and I will do what I can now to help repay the college,” Glumcher says. This includes helping to recruit other students from South America. “I am not in a contract that requires me to give back. I feel a connection to Dickinson and a responsibility. If it wasn’t for Dickinson I wouldn’t be in the United States or have had the opportunity at Princeton.”