Greg Cvetanovich, Chemistry
At Northwestern, Greg has found ample outlets for his creativity and altruism—-singing gospel music with Northwestern’s Community Ensemble, taking part in a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims, and voicing student concerns to Weinberg deans as co-president of the Student Advisory Board. He plans to be a physician and will attend Harvard Medical School in the fall, in the joint Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program.
How did you learn about Northwestern?
One of my friends who is a year older was telling me how great his freshman year was here. He was in MMSS (Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences) with really bright students and professors devoted to teaching. He was just enjoying the college experience, living in the dorm, meeting new people, involved in all these activities, going to Burger King at 2 a.m.—-the things you don’t really do in high school.
How did you meet your own friends when you came?
Being in Willard [residential college], I had theater friends, music friends. One of my best friends is a music composition major, at the totally opposite end of the spectrum from me in chemistry and biology. That’s one of the cool things about coming to a school with music and theater and journalism: you meet people who are pursuing very different paths in life and are really interesting people.
Did you have a favorite class in your major?
It was the graduate class with Rick Silverman in bio-organic chemistry that focused on how enzymes work and how we design drugs to target that. I liked the fact that Professor Silverman has such expertise in the area, that he has actually used this basic research to develop a drug that’s now on the market and helping people.
Do professors encourage you to do hands-on science?
I’ve done research here for two-plus years under Sam Stupp [professor of chemistry, materials science, and medicine]. His group works on regenerative medicine. The project I’m working on involves differentiating stem cells into insulin-producing cells for Type I diabetes treatment. Instead of injecting insulin a few times a day people would be able to undergo transplantation of cells to regulate their blood sugar and hopefully be independent of insulin injection.
I’ve been funded by a Research Experience for Undergraduates grant, through the National Science Foundation.
What has been your biggest challenge here?
An Introduction to Philosophy course. It was one of my most rewarding courses as well. We talked about the history of philosophy, relative and absolute truth, the existence of God, all these classic and philosophic questions I don’t have time to think about on a daily basis. But to have a brilliant professor and students who were engaged in the questions made me realize how much I don’t know. That’s one of the valuable things you learn in college.
