Brandon Dammerman

Brandon Dammerman, a Columbia College senior from Lancaster, Penn., has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for the year 2000, selected along with only 31 other top college students from an applicant pool of 935 across the United States.

Dammerman, a mathematics and biochemistry major who plays with Columbia's squash club and volunteers as a tutor for Double Discovery, intends to pursue his masters degree in mathematics or neuroscience.

One of the most prestigious academic honors available to college students, the Rhodes scholarship provides for graduate degree studies at Oxford University in England.

Having never been abroad, Dammerman considers the opportunity "pretty idyllic." With a chance to test out his high school French, he looks forward to touring Europe and living among the historic monuments of Oxford.

"I'm really interested in the architecture and the history," he said, "I've always wanted to study abroad."