Every Wednesday, our ‘Away from home’ blog series features one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab recounting his/her experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences, what they miss about India, as well as some top tips for postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.
Today we feature Anupam Goel, an alumnus of Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Anupam is researching protein interactions at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA as a postdoctoral associate now. In future, he hopes to sell recombinant proteins/enzymes for application in several emergency medical situations in India.
Anupam Goel, pursuing one of his many interests beyond research.
Looking at protein interactions
I came across this article about genetic engineering during school days — that’s how it all started. I was fascinated that living things can be engineered. For higher studies, I went to the Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. My interest in protein structures led me to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Currently I am a postdoctoral associate at the structural biology/pathology laboratory of research hospital. The hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children’s catastrophic diseases. It is a a world leader in cancer and has the best infrastructure to do science. I study protein structure and dynamics and how they change on interactions with other macromolecules/ligands. I look at protein interactions at the atomic scale.
Living in the US
In the US, the best thing is that you can do whatever you want. All you need to do is to think of doing it, and you will mostly find easy ways of doing it. People were warm and for me, acclimatization didn’t take too long, although there were two things that took time to get used to — food and slang!
Initially, I missed Indian food all the time and saw pooris and what not in my dreams. Slang gave me a hard time. Also, some funny situations arose when using English phrases acceptable in India such as ‘passed out’, which would mean ‘graduated’ in India but meant ‘getting hammered on drinking too much’ here in the US!
My postdoc tips
1. Know that you will have to work hard. If you have an idea, pursue it hard.
2. Take charge and responsibility, drive your research and follow your intuitions.
3. The human mind could become the biggest dustbin unless one commits to go out of the way and do things others don’t trust could work.
Home is where the heart is
Away from home, you miss your family until you start your own. There are times when you question if all this distance from family is worth it or not.
I miss the culture and the colors. India has a blend of a lot of everything. Just a two-hour travel gets you different food, clothes and languages. India is unique in that sense and no other nation can ever parallel that.
I wish to start a business in india. My plan is to start selling recombinant proteins/enzymes for application in several emergency medical situations. I am looking for establishing my network in India to understand the market better. I have been away from India too long and haven’t found very responsive people sharing knowledge about the market. I would like to know more people to establish connections. And would also like to guide younger scientists looking for opportunities in the US.
We have 30 postodocs in this series now! Anupam Goel makes the 30th postdoc featured in this blog series. Find him and the rest on our interactive Away from home world map pictured below and updated every Wednesday. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.
