Studying STEM in the U.K.: Time, Creativity, Research and Impact

Nicholas Norwitz '18 is on fire.

Not, of course, literally. When we talked, he was just about to graduate from Harvard Medical School and has decided not to pursue a residency.

Why? Because he's a rising Social Media star with plans to build a multimedia metabolic health platform. He figures he can make a bigger difference, reach more people, by combining research with advocacy and public education.

But this wasn't always the plan.

Norwitz has struggled with his own health issues, including Inflammatory Bowel Disease sufficiently severe to find him in and out of intensive care in his early 20s. To his own surprise, lifestyle change in the form of a ketogenic diet put his disease into remission. This was the first domino that set his life on a new path: his mission is to "Make Metabolic Health Mainstream." 

He graduated Valedictorian from Dartmouth in 2018, the recipient of a Barry Goldwater Scholarship in his sophomore year, majoring in Cell Biology and Biochemistry. He then completed his PhD in Metabolism at the University of Oxford on a Keasbey Scholarship in 2021, before attending Harvard Medical School to complete his MD.

Norwitz is grateful for his time at Dartmouth and the foundation it established for him. He says, "I had tremendous mentors and Professors who were in my corner and who made all the difference in opening up doors for my future. Dartmouth was an amazing place to forge life-changing Professor-Student relationships." But in the U.K., he says, he was given the freedom to be self-directed, curious, and explore new questions. "At Oxford," he says, "they just want to see that you can execute and contribute to your field."  Doing a PhD in the U.S., he posits, would have involved filling more requirements and checking boxes, rather than exploring and expanding. He recalls long hours and conversations in pubs and sushi restaurants, developing ideas and collaborating with friends on the next "cool paper." He encountered diverse minds and subjects—physicists, actors, inventors. All these experiences broadened his horizons about what was possible for him. The results? He's published a cookbook; has a rocketing social media presence, a business built around his YouTube Channel; interacts with interesting celebrities left and right; and travels the world to teach about metabolic health education. From a lab at Oxford to hotels in India and Rome, Nick's life has certainly taken an interesting turn.

"Time and creativity," he sums up his experience in the U.K.

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Adithi Jayaraman '24 faces similar choices: research in the lab vs. patient interaction. But her takeaways after a year in the U.K. are different.

A psychology major and anthropology minor at Dartmouth, Jayaraman struggled with mental health issues, specifically OCD, in her undergraduate years, inspiring her to pursue a path to clinical psychology. The recipient of a Keasbey Scholarship, Jayaraman studies cognitive neuroscience and clinical psychology at Cambridge University. Next year, she has decided to apply for a PhD in clinical psychology in the U.S. Throughout the course of her education, she has moved progressively away from research toward patient interaction.

"What I really want," she has decided, "is a way to do both." But in the U.K., she has found, clinical experience and research are harder to combine. While at Cambridge, she has solidified her interests, but her time there has also helped her realize that she does not want to stay in academia, on the "publish or perish" treadmill, her entire professional life.

Jayaraman and Norwitz both felt academically prepared for their work in the U.K. The independence they experienced there allowed them to really consider the scientific, social, emotional paths they were on and take their skills in new directions. Both expressed a desire to leave the academic treadmill that STEM work can entail to branch into patient interaction and advocacy.

While she has deep respect for the long-term impacts of research, after all the years of hard work behind and ahead of Jayaraman, she wants to have a more immediate impact. "If I can change one person's life," she says, "it would all be worth it."

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If you're considering a path toward STEM graduate study in the UK, talk to the Fellowships team about Rhodes, Marshall, and Churchill Scholarships. The Class of 2027 will also be eligible for the Keasbey Scholarship.

Alongside Nick and Adithi, other recent Dartmouth alums who have pursued STEM graduate school in the UK include:

• Sarah Pearl '20, a Marshall Scholar who completed an MSc in Atmosphere, Ocean, and Climate at the University of Reading and an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London before taking a position with the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks
• Max Teszler '23, a Marshall Scholar pursuing an MSc in Plant Genetics at the University of East Anglia, followed by an MSc in Food Policy at City University
• Rujuta Pandit '24, a Reynolds Scholarship recipient pursuing an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridg
• Ningning Sun '24, pursuing an MPhil in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge