Name droppers: UCD med student bound for Switzerland

Annahita Sarcon, a fourth-year medical student at UC Davis, received a 2012 ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship to study takotsubo cardiomyopathy at the University Hospital Zurich, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe. She is one of 20 students from throughout the United States selected for the program.

ThinkSwiss is an official program of the Swiss Confederation that promotes exchanges and the sharing of knowledge between the U.S. and Switzerland. The program offers research scholarships and travel grants for stays at summer schools at top Swiss universities.

At the University Hospital Zurich, Sarcon is studying takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a disorder thought to affect 2.5 percent of patients seeking treatment for a heart attack worldwide. While blood flow in coronary arteries is not blocked, the flow is reduced, and a part of the heart temporarily enlarges and may not pump well. First described in Japan in 1991, the condition gets its name from characteristic change in the shape of the heart that occurs during the stress, which resembles an octopus pot, or tako-tsubo. The condition, also known as broken heart syndrome, is treatable, with normal heart function typically being restored in a week.
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William Young, a June graduate of Davis High School, has received a four-year Siemens Merit Scholarship, totaling $4,000. Young will be a freshman this fall at Oregon State University, with a major in environmental engineering.

Young said he is interested in the possibility of “working with solar energy technology. I would like my profession to include helping people. I look at what my parents do — for both of them, their job is to make other people’s lives better.”

Young’s father is a Siemens employee based in West Sacramento, and is involved with health care diagnostics; his mother is a civil engineer with the firm West, Yost and Associates and specializes in water-related projects.

As a Davis High student, Young was a member of the cross country and ski teams. This summer, he has gone backpacking at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County and is planning a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Young was one of 150 recipients of a Siemens Merit Scholarship this year; the awards are given to children of Siemens U.S. employees.

— Do you know of someone who has won an award or accomplished something noteworthy? Send it, preferably by email, to newsroom@davisenterprise.net, or to Name droppers, The Davis Enterprise, P.O. Box 1470, Davis, CA 95617.