A Curious Path to Med School

Zachary Dickey’s interest in nutrition grew after taking a course with Associate Professor Indika Edirisinghe. A member of the food science and nutrition department's faculty, Edirisinghe helped Dickey find more opportunities to research nutrition at the Clinical Nutrition Research Center on Illinois Tech’s main campus, operated by the Institute for Food Safety and Health.

Dickey says enrolling in medical school is still a part of his future plans, but he wants to gain a better understanding of nutrition first.

“Nutrition is a fundamental field that is not taught in medical school, and a field that physicians tend to lack significant understanding,” Dickey says.

It might be an unusual path to medical school, but Dickey says discovering a creative track to reach a goal is part of the Illinois Tech experience.

“Illinois Tech is a prestigious university that teaches its students to think in an innovative way to help solve some of the biggest challenges we face,” he says.