Pre-med students from Weill Cornell in Qatar are studying here and in NYC for the summer

Professor and associate dean David Robertshaw, center, poses on campus with premedical students from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. They are, from left, Vildana Omerovic, Amila Husic, Dino Terzic, Kunali Dalal, in front, and Muna Al-Ali. Terzic and Al-Ali are working on research projects with Cornell professors on campus this summer. The others are working with faculty at Weill Cornell in New York City. Barry De Libero/University Photography

By Susan Lang

Among the hundreds of high school and college students on campus in Ithaca this summer, several, for the first time, hail from the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

"Two of the 25 students now enrolled in the first pre-medical class of the Qatar program are on campus in Ithaca and three are at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York this summer doing research with Cornell faculty," said David Robertshaw, associate dean and professor of physiology at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q).

WCMC-Q was inaugurated in October 2002 and began with a two-year, non-degree course of study to prepare students for medical school. The first class of students, most from Middle Eastern countries including Qatar, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are enrolled in a premedical program that offers identical curricula to the premedical courses offered at Cornell in Ithaca, ranging from chemistry, physics and biology to mathematics, neuroscience, psychology, microbiology and medical ethics.

However, the students are awaiting completion of their campus in Qatar. As of next month, WCMC-Q will move into its new building, which Robertshaw estimates will be the size of two football fields, with 15 Cornell faculty members. "The two students here, however, have the opportunity this summer to experience a research campus and what their home university is like," said Robertshaw. The students have been here for about a month. They have all completed their first year in the pre-med program in Qatar and will return for one more year at the end of the summer.

Pre-med student Dino Terzic, 21, who originally is from Bosnia and Herzegovina but has lived in Qatar for several years, is working in Ithaca this summer with Jun Kelly Liu, Cornell assistant professor of molecular biology and genetics. "My task is to map a mutation affecting the process of differentiation of certain cells -- that is, to locate the place of the mutation and determine the affected gene," said Terzic, who attended the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sarajevo for a year until WCMC-Q opened. "The work is a great experience, and I enjoy it very much. The co-workers in the lab are all very friendly and nice people, and I am really glad to have the opportunity to do research in such an environment."

Muna Al-Ali, 19, from Qatar, is working in the lab of Timothy Devoogd, professor of psychology. "Muna is measuring the sizes of areas in the brains of zebra finches to assess how brain development might be affected by PCB contamination," said Devoogd. "She will then help to compare how these brains compare with the brain development in swallows from the St. Lawrence River, some from areas high in PCBs and some from areas low in PCBs."

Upon completion of the two-year program, the students will be able to apply to the medical school of WCMC-Q. Those admitted in 2004 for the first class at the WCMC-Q will have a complete, four-year medical education in Qatar that reaps a Cornell medical degree. WCMC-Q will offer the same curriculum as Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, taught all by Cornell faculty. It is the first American university to offer its doctor of medicine degree overseas. It also is the first co-educational institution of higher learning in Qatar.