We bring the ‘Away from home‘ blogging series to a close today. We will have sporadic entries under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog from time to time but as a weekly, today is the last day of the ‘immensely enriching’, ‘very resourceful’ and ‘totally awesome’ blogging series. Yes, those are our readers’ words to describe the series in the nine months of its life.
We bring it to a close today not because we have run out of postdocs to feature but because we do not want it to be repetitive and boring — we will keep looking for rather unique experiences to add to the series whenever possible. Needless to say, I will miss my weekly dose of postdoc chat (#postdochat for the hashtag-friendly) as, I’m sure, many of our regular readers will. But its best to be useful rather than just be.
Through the nine months of its existence (we began the series in November 2012) the series has been featuring one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab every Wednesday. We have brought to you the lives and aspirations of 30 young Indian scientists from across the world. The posts recount the experience of these postdocs — the triumphs and challenges of lab life, the cultural differences, what they miss about India — and, most importantly, offer some useful tips for postdocs headed abroad. The series has had excellent response from the scientific and research community worldwide.
What we also enjoyed bringing to you were the monthly summaries that compiled the rich variety of the month’s entries. Also, our Away from home interactive map pinpointing the labs these postdocs are based in — we just loved the map dotting up every Wednesday with one unique postdoc experience. You an continue to dig into all these interesting entries, summaries and the map under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog.
In winding up the series, I must admit I have cherished the opportunity of learning from the postdocs we featured — interacting with them to understand the challenges they face in foreign lands and getting inspired by their passion for science. Some of the posts will remain etched in my mind for their richness, resourcefulness and emotional outpouring. Some others will continue to be guiding lights for future postdocs seeking to tread this path.
Each of the entries had a unique flavour. Some were representative for a large number of postdoc lives. So to bid goodbye, here’s a pick of my favourite ten:
‘Indian academics must welcome global desis’
Suvasini Ramaswamy is a PhD from the Indian Insititute of Science, Bangalore and works as a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California, United States. She tells us about her work in stem cells and regenerative medicine, the enviable weather in La jolla that keeps her going and that inherently Indian phenomenon of ‘jugaad’ (roughly translating to ‘a creative quick-fix’) — something she says makes Indians rustle up innovations in their backyard. Suvasini’s flair for science communication also saw her author this piece for Nature India some time back.
Engineering stem cells and vaccines
Ankur Singh is an IIT-Bombay alumnus and a postdoc in Mechanical Engineering and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) at Georgia Tech, USA. Ankur was preparing for an exciting stint in academia as an assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University when we last heard from him. He says finding a postdoc position is easy but finding a great postdoc position is rather tricky and very tough. He recommends that aspiring trainees work hard, publish well, and do their homework before accepting a postdoc position.
A journey through academia
Akhilesh Gaharwar was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. He was bracing up to join Texas A&M University, USA as an assistant professor when we last caught up with him. He tells us about his fascinating academic journey from an undergraduate student in India to a faculty in a leading US University. Akhilesh exemplifies two things — that hard work has no alternative and that you can never go wrong if you follow your heart.
Mentors make a researcher
Amjad Husain is a postdoc at Harvard Medical School in Boston prior to which he was a PhD student at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi. His heartfelt gratitude goes out to the excellent mentors who shaped his life and career and he dreams of spinning off his own venture sometime in the future.
Marital science bliss
Talking about how marriage catapulted her further into her scientific pursuits is Atrayee Banerjee. Atrayee has a Masters in Environmental Management from the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), Calcutta, India and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Right now, she works at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA.
Of jalapenos & cognition
Young medico Abhijit Das is a postdoctoral fellow at the Kessler Foundation, New Jersey, USA. Abhijit completed his neurology residency at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum, Kerala, India. He tells us about his tryst with blizzards, his coming to terms with the silent ‘j’ of jalapenos, and the excellent research environment in cognitive neurorehabilitation.
Work culture matters
Shankar Das is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA. Shankar narrates the culture shock he dealt with after he landed in the US from Bose Institute in Kolkata, India. Despite the initial glitch, he suggests that every researcher must get international exposure and come back with some essential take-homes.
Maintaining life’s equilibrium
Niti Kumar, a PhD from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi is currently a postdoc at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany. Niti says her chemistry teacher propelled her into science with some funny correlations she made between chemistry and life!
Mastering industry-academia links
Dilraj Lama is a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore. Dilraj is having a great time with biological modelling and simulation experiments as he seamlessly blends in with the local community owing to similar facial features. Exposed to a healthy multi-disciplinary work team, he is also learning important lessons in industry-academia linkages early on in his research life.
Nanotech dream for rural India
Archana Swami, who completed her Ph.D thesis at IGIB, New Delhi, India is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA and part of the Robert Langer group at The David Koch Institute at MIT, Boston, USA. She has a word for aspiring postdocs who are also young parents: the US education system will imbibe logical thinking, creativity and imagination in your child.
And as always, we leave you with our interactive ‘Away from home‘ map, the one-stop resource for Indian postdocs headed abroad. Hope you enjoy our future posts as and when we update this series.
