William Durvan Zandamela

Born and raised in Mozambique, Guilherme Durvan António Zandamela, I nurtured a love for knowledge which inspired in me the dream of becoming a scientist. I am now doing my PhD studiies in Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute, focused on Glycoscience.

In 2016, while a student at Escola Secundária Josina Machel and Escola Nacional de Música, I was awarded the full-ride "Opendoors" scholarship to study at the American International School of Mozambique. In 2019 at the age of 17 I moved from Mozambique to Canada having won the Donald A. Wehrung International Student Award, a full-ride scholarship to study at The University of British Columbia in recognition of my academic excellence under difficult circumstances. Under the mentorship of Drs. Wesley Zandberg and Michael Deyholos, I carried out Glycoscience research, documented in three theses written in my second, third and fourth years and held employment as an undergraduate research assistant in the chemistry and biology departments. In the spring of 2023 I graduated from UBC Okanagan, valedictorian, with an Honours Bachelors degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Biochemistry Option), with a minor in Computer Science. I then volunteered in the synthetic chemistry lab of Dr. Conor Pranckevicius exploring non-glycoscience topics before enrolling in August as a PhD student at Scripps Research, in La Jolla, California, USA.

I am also a Jazz musician - a performer and composer. Artistically, my motivating ideal is to make music for its own sake, with aesthetic and personal value. As I have grown as a scientist and musician over the years, I have increasingly embraced both my scientific and musical passions. Despite their apparent dissimilarity, I think they have a common origin within my character, only expressed in different ways.