Education is one of the four pillars of UNMC’s mission, and our students are the lifeblood of that aspect of campus life.
In UNMC Today’s Student Spotlight, we get to know some of these students, who will become tomorrow’s health care professionals.
Today we meet:
- Name: Weiwei Zhang
- Hometown: Ruian, Zhejiang Province, China
- Program/Year: Ph.D. in Bioinformatics/fourth year
List three songs on your playlist.
- “Sonatina [0].” My husband composed it for me
- “The Ballad of Serenity (‘Firefly’ theme song),” Sonny Rhode
- “Theme from ‘Farscape,'” Subvision
What sparked your interest in pathology/microbiology?
I had three degrees in three different majors: computer science, optics and mathematics. I was thinking I wanted to try something different but related to my background. A bioinformatics major in the pathology and microbiology department fits everything I wanted. I really like what I am doing. I feel it’s pretty amazing to detect abnormalities in human genome and try to kill cancer by “talking” with a computer through programming language.
Your favorite study snack is:
Snacking while studying was considered a very bad habit when I was a kid, after I grew up I kept that behavior.
Your favorite app is:
I work with a computer pretty much all day long. I decided not to use a phone so that I will spend time on something not connected to the Internet.
Three things people may not know about you:
- I walk to school if weather allows. It takes me about 50 minutes, but I consider it a good form of relaxation after a long time facing a computer.
- I love washing dishes by hand.
- I was very big in college as an undergraduate. After I lost weight, I still kept exercising three days per week, and I love it.