The ‘Away from home‘ blogging series features Indian postdocs working in foreign labs recounting their experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences and what they miss about India. They also offer useful tips for their Indian postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

Today’s blog is in the ‘breaking news’ category where Varrla Eswaraiah, a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland shares the excitement over his lab’s recent paper published in Nature Materials. Eswar, an alumnus of IIT Madras, tells us all about making graphene flakes in a kitchen blender and the possibility of replicating it on a mega scale. He tells us about his humble beginnings from a small village in Andhra Pradesh and how he struggled against odds to pursue his passion for science.

Varrla Eswaraiah at the Trinity College Dublin.

Whipping it up

Right now, we are excited about our new work at Prof. Jonathan N. Coleman’s lab in the School of Physics and CRANN at Trinity College Dublin, where I am a postdoc researcher. The reason for excitement is the result of some new experiments at our ‘Chemical Physics of Low dimensional nanostructures’ lab. The results, just published in Nature Materials are from a very simple experiment: we took graphite and put it in a kitchen blender with wash-up liquid, and turned it on. After sometime, we got graphene flakes. This works from a few milliliters of liquid to hundreds of liters and is technologically feasible to replicate on a large scale. The idea of taking graphene from the lab to industry is successfully achieved with our proof of concept. It will be useful in printed electronics and nanofillers for making super strong polymer composites and in many other applications that one can imagine.

Graphene is a wonder material with superior physical properties. It is basically few atoms (~1 nm) thick and is two dimensional with great electrical conductivity, superb strength (more than steel), transparency (98%) and exceptional thermal conductivity. The discovery of graphene with unusual electrical properties got the Nobel Prize in Physics for researchers at Manchester University in 2010. Now the world is working on commercialising this wonder material for real world applications.

Hunger pangs to craze for invention

For me, the fascination for science started alongside hunger pangs back in 1995 when I was a fifth grader. My parents were labourers, working every day from morning to evening. Since they did not get a chance to go to school, they wanted to give me good education with their savings. My primary school teacher recognised that I was good at mathematics and conveyed it to my parents. That was the first step, and my love towards science has never waned after that. However, my brother had to sacrifice his education due to lack of money.

When I got a 2^nd rank in the common entrance test for a masters in physics at Sri Venkateswara University Tirupathi, I realised my potential in mathematics and physics. The professors at the university encouraged us towards research. Tirupathi is close to IIT Madras and we wrote all our competitive exams in physics there. We got an opportunity to visit the laboratories of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and seniors would explain to us the science behind their research. That inspired me to take the GATE exam.

The environment at SV University was healthy and competitive — we discussed mathematical physics and solved problems to remember the concepts of physics. That got me into a PhD programme at IIT Madras.

Though I didn’t choose science, it chose me, and now I enjoy it. The best thing I like about science are experiments and inventions — I’m crazy about cracking it before anyone else can. My PhD was on carbon nanotubes and graphene nanomaterials under the supervision of Prof. S. Ramaprabhu, who introduced me to the world of carbon. I am grateful to him for inculcating discipline and time management in my research. He would start work at the lab at 8 am. One day, I was late and he told me, “If you want to grow in your career, you need to have self-discipline.”  I have never forgotten those words. The IIT Madras campus was awesome with the black buck deer roaming everywhere, Gurunath’s tea and the Electrical café.

PhD days were tough but I tackled moments of frustration with patience. If you don’t get frustrated at some point in your PhD, you will not realise the importance of the work. Research is ‘try and try, don’t cry’. I was actively working on carbon nanotubes and polymer nanocomposite for my PhD. Alongside, I was working with Prof. Krishnan Balasubramaniam on an IITM-US Air Force project for developing strain sensors. This is when I got an opportunity to visit the Northwestern University, Evanston campus and got an exposure to international research.

While writing my PhD thesis, I sent an email to Prof. Coleman for a postdoc position and got an interview call. I chose the Coleman lab because the group works on one-dimensional and two-dimensional materials and publishes in high impact journals.The ultimate aim of any researcher is to get recognised in his field and do useful science. I found that with this group. I  got a positive response and joined the lab as a postdoc.

Easy going Ireland

The best thing about Ireland is its easy going people. Dublin is one of the best places to live in and roam around.  I use the weekends to visit the beautiful counties with friends. Irish weather is great — you see winter, spring, summer and autumn in a single day!

When I landed in Dublin for the first time, it was raining and cold at 5 degrees celsius, way too chillier than Chennai, where temperatures are above 40 degrees celsius. There were big containers of Guinness beer everywhere just like petrol/diesel tanks in India! Since I am from a lower middle class family, I hesitate to drink and spend money over it. Here, everyone starts drinking from Friday evening till late on Sunday night! On the 5^th day, my supervisor invited me to a send off party for a colleague at the bar in college. Everyone got beer and I got coke. One can’t drink too much coke but I counted everyone drinking more than 5 litres of beer! Later that night I called home and narrated the amazing story to my mom.

There are many similarities between India and Ireland — in fact our flags have the same three colours! There are Irish Telugu Associations and organisations here celebrating Ugadi, Diwali and almost all other Indian festivals with south Indian food and cultural programmes. So there is small India here!

Trinity college is a historical seat of learning and science with its Book of Kells library, which celebrated 350 years recently. My lab is a mind blowing mix of nationalities with lovely people from Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Germany, India, Pakistan, China, Romania and more. Prof. Coleman is an exceptional, world famous graphene research scientist.

Difficult accents, expensive living

The English accent in this country is a bit weird. Sometimes it is hard to understand.

Dublin is well developed but if one visits the countryside, there are very few people and most  houses are empty. People have either migrated to Dublin or left Ireland due to unemployment. Another worrying thing is the cost of living, it is very difficult to live here if one is not earning sufficient money. Much of the property is held by the banks, which borrowed money from other countries to build them. The buildings remained unsold for a long time and the country went into recession.

Postdoc tips

Indians do have a great opportunity here as postdocs in science and engineering fields. The good thing is if someone has the potential, it doesn’t matter where they are from. This country encourages them to grow further and help its national economy. My advice to Indian postdocs is to take decisions at the right time and look at labs that will help them grow in their research goals.

Village memories

I miss my home and family at Raithunagaram village in Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh. My family lives in the small, culturally-rich village with a population of 1500 and green rice fields all around. My parents came to this village from another far-off forest area called Nallamalla, where people don’t even have the basic amenities of life.

I know there’s stiff competition for a research job in India. But I am enthusiastic to start a science career in my homeland. India is a great nation with excellent human resources and intellectual property. All we need to do is create good work environments and be more productive.

I am very keen on propagating science education in rural India. Whenever I go home, I carry science gadgets, tool kits and do-it-yourself stuff for school kids in my village and explain to them the underlying science. They love it. I got a solar cooker model kit and a wind turbine model from science museums in London and Singapore for primary school students. They assembled these models and experienced first hand how these gadgets work. The important thing is: we need to teach kids when they are supposed to learn, not later.

Varrla Eswaraiah joins 36 other Indian postdocs already featured on this blog. Our ‘Away from home’ interactive map marks all these bright Indian postdocs from around the world. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

The ‘Away from home‘ blogging series features Indian postdocs working in foreign labs recounting their experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences and what they miss about India. They also offer useful tips for their Indian postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

In this blog, Sivasankaran Harish, an alumnus of the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai and a postdoc researcher at Kyushu University in Japan tells us about making the most of the opportunities life throws at us. Harish’s other fascinating experiences at CERN on the Franco-Swiss border; Stanford University, USA and The University of Tokyo, Japan have taught him an important lesson: “Believe in your instincts, build on your strengths, but most importantly, focus on your weaknesses.”

Sivasankaran Harish with wife Sowmyaa at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, Japan.

Small is fascinating

I am particularly fascinated with ‘small’ things. I always liked looking at biological cells using an ‘optical microscope’. So medicine/microbiology should have been an obvious choice of study. However, I wanted to study mechanical engineering going by ‘my instincts’.

The fascination for ‘small’ (scientifically the relevant term now is ‘nano’) things remained but I did not know how to pursue it. Sometimes I thought it was just another childhood interest, just the way I wanted to play cricket like Sachin or Warne.

I studied engineering with limited interest for more than two years. During that time, a lecturer from my alma mater Dr. Albert Bensely asked me to work in his research work on cryogenic treatment of metals. I agreed without much of an interest on the topic. But it helped me work again at an advanced level of ‘microscopy’ to understand properties of materials. It was a difficult but I liked it more than my course work.

Starting to read relevant literature, I realized that small/nano was not just a medical term but had wide implications in the field of engineering. Being naturally inclined towards thermal sciences, the idea of exploring thermal properties at nanoscale was interesting. (I still wonder why Dr. Bensely asked me to work for him ignoring the many top ranking students in my department at that time. I would have ended up doing a normal job and would have had a huge bank balance now, if he didn’t ask me to join him!).

I completed an undergraduate in mechanical engineering at College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai. Unlike most classmates, I was not interested in working in an IT firm. My interests were in higher studies but I failed to clear the qualifying GATE or CAT examinations. Eventually, I ended up working in a small control valve design firm in Chennai. The job was easy and I had plenty of time to think about further studies abroad. I was interested in going to Europe, especially to The Netherlands. The decision was not well received by my family members. However, I was fortunate to get full financial assistance for a masters degree programme from many reputed US universities and also from Eindhoven Institute of Technology, The Netherlands. I decided to accept the latter offer.

Enter mechanics and nanomaterials

I was predominantly working on topics related to fluid mechanics and heat transfer during my master’s programme. I happened to see summer internship openings at CERN and applied hesitatingly to the highly reputed institute. Surprisingly, I received an offer for internship in the electronics cooling division of CERN.

During my stay at CERN, I happened to learn a lot of serious heat transfer issues in micro and nano electronics and the need for advanced thermal management systems. The experience ignited my interest in nano materials and in harnessing the thermal properties of such materials for energy systems. This interest got me a scholarship to The University of Tokyo, Japan. I worked in Prof. Shigeo Maruyama’s research group for a doctoral degree on thermal properties of carbon nanotubes.

Also, during my stint as visiting researcher in Prof. Kenneth Goodson’s laboratory at Stanford University, USA , I worked on state-of-the-art techniques for measuring thermal properties of industrially important nanoscale materials. (Imagine measuring the thermal transport properties of an individual wire/tube which is 100 times smaller than a human hair.)

I joined Kyushu University as a postdoctoral researcher in 2013 with a fellowship from the Japan Society of Promotion of Science. Presently, I am working on developing advanced thermal energy storage materials with carbon nanostructured additives. I also work on measuring the thermal properties of thin films used in fuel cells in collaboration with the material science research team at International Institute of Carbon Neutral Energy Research.

Resources aplenty but language an issue

Top academic institutes in Japan are always equipped with plenty of resources for research activities. The standard of facilities in Japan is much higher than the facilities in USA. Considering the kind of facilities available in Japan, the amount of scientific work done is relatively low. Inability of the Japanese students to communicate in English is one of the major reasons for this. This is also an area where academic institutes of native English speaking countries outperform the rest.

Nevertheless, people in Japan are very polite and helpful. Though language remains a hindrance on many occasions, they are forever willing to help you. Moreover, I often see significant cultural similarities between India and Japan, which makes it easier to interact with people here. However, I must admit that among the countries in which I spent a significant amount of time, I would consider Switzerland the best for it’s lovely working atmosphere, very helpful colleagues and the country’s scenic beauty.

Bollywood connection?

Starting in Japan was not easy especially after graduating from Europe. The language was/is a major barrier. Sometimes, it is frustrating to communicate with people here since you do not know the language.

On the funny side, when I came here, people had difficulty understanding my English. To understand me better, they always asked ‘Sushmita Sen?’  whenever I was trying to strike up a conversation. I wondered why everyone in Japan was so curious about this Bollywood celebrity. I thought the former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen must have a special place in the hearts of the Japanese. It took me a while to finally understand that the word was sumima-sen (and I wrongly heard it as Sushmita Sen all the time), and it meant ‘excuse me’ in Japanese!

In general, if you eat vegetarian food, then Japan is not the right place. Besides, outside Tokyo it’s almost impossible to find a south Indian restaurant or the real taste of Indian food.

Commitment and hard work make the difference

The intellectual acumen of people is the same here as in India, or perhaps is better in our country compared to many others. It is essential that we use our postdoc experiences to understand and learn things we are not very good at and which make other countries shine. I would say the most important qualities to learn are commitment, sincerity, self-discipline and hard work. If you lack these four qualities, intellect will be fruitless.

Believe in your instincts, build on your strengths, but most importantly, focus on your weaknesses.

Academic profession still neglected in India

I miss my friends from back home. I also miss celebrating festivals, weddings, anniversaries, parties and religious functions with family members. I certainly miss the Diwali sweets, Christmas cakes and the Ramzan Biryani.

I would love to come back home and work. But my concern is the kind of facilities in India and the position of academics and teachers in our society. In Japan, being a professor in a good University is considered quite prestigious and is viewed at par with a chief technology officer position in a reputed company. I wonder if professors in India get the same respect as faculties in developed countries.

Sivasankaran Harish makes an impressive addition to our ‘Away from home’ interactive map  featuring bright young Indian postdocs from around the world. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

The ‘Away from home‘ blogging series features Indian postdocs working in foreign labs recounting their experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences and what they miss about India. They also offer useful tips for their Indian postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

In this post, microbiologist Devendra Dusane, a doctorate from the University of Pune and a postdoc at McGill University, Canada talks about the importance of the postdoc phase, which he says,  is crucial for shaping one’s  goals — both in life and in research. It is “overwhelming when my wife and daughter appreciate my published research papers and celebrate with me”, he says.

Devendra Dusane with his family

The ABC of Microbiology

When I joined the master’s programme of the University of Pune in India, I started learning about antimicrobial agents and biofilms. I found that bacterial cells, which I earlier thought to be lonely, actually attached to surfaces, communicated, multiplied and formed detrimental biofilms that were resistant to most antibiotics. This phenomenon of bacterial cross-talk (quorum sensing) and antibiotic resistance triggered my interest to study new antimicrobials that could inhibit and disperse these biofilms.

The research was a part of a collaborative programme between the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the University of Pune. I had to travel for a few months every year from Pune to the BARC unit at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu to seek guidance, use confocal microscopy and collect marine samples. It was fun. I had good colleagues at both places. I had the best supervisors during my Ph.D.

I was fortunate to be associated with great minds and places during my career. Before pursuing PhD, I had an opportunity to work in an industry for three years and then for a year with Prof. Anil Gupta at IIM Ahmedabad. Prof. Gupta is an authority in intellectual property rights, grass-root innovations and a Padmashree awardee. This was the time when I got the opportunity to interact with the former director general of CSIR Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar and former DBT adviser Dr. S. Natesh.

Career path

I am presently a postdoc at the Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Canada. I am in one of the best labs at McGill doing research on anti-biofilm agents and quorum sensing inhibitors (to disrupt the bacterial cross-talk). My mentor is young and dynamic and always ready to help her students.

Career choices

In everybody’s life, there comes a time when you have to decide on the right career path. Life is all about correct choices; consequences follow. After comparing my well paid peers in the IT sector and those in research waiting endlessly for the government’s decision for a marginal rise in research fellowship/stipend, I thought if the decision to pursue research was right or not. However, I am happy about deciding to undertake research — it has not just been a great career choice but also an immensely satisfying one. It is especially overwhelming when my wife (who is also pursuing research) and daughter appreciate my published research and celebrate with me.

Advice for postdoc aspirants

No matter where you do your postdoc, selecting the right mentor is very necessary. I know it is difficult to gauge this before you meet and start working with your mentor but you have to look for a supervisor who is working in your area of interest and is established. One who understands his/her students’ research goals and treats you as a colleague.

I would advise new postdocs to be innovative in their research, get work published to set up a platform and move ahead in achieving future goals. One should also remember that postdoc is just a temporary phase — don’t get attracted to it and stay for a long time. Think about achieving career goals — academia or industry is always waiting for prepared minds.

Speaking about research in Canada, it is one of the best places to start your career as a postdoc. Winters are pretty cold but its fun to go skiing with friends and family.

Path to success

I would advise postdoc aspirants to pursue a postdoc career in India or abroad and gain expertise to set up their own lab (academia or industry). Also, doctoral or post-doctoral training is a crucial step not just for setting and achieving your career goals but also to understand life. During this time you know more about yourself, people around you, different places and how to adjust to different situations. So keep up the hard work and enjoy life.

Find Devendra Dusane in our ‘Away from home’ interactive map featuring Indian postdocs from around the world. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

As promised our ‘Away from home‘ blogging series will feature sporadic entries under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog from time to time. The series was earlier a weekly featuring 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.

We promised than when we hear something exciting or interesting from an Indian postdoc abroad, we will bring it to you. So here’s the first ‘sporadic’ entry coming from Anupam Jhingran, a postdoc fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), New York. Anupam tells us about an extremely important facet of the Indian postdoc’s life abroad — finding the right match to marry! Anupam has been successful in getting a bride for himself but recounts for fellow mates what it has been like go through the process. He gives us a blow by blow account of what all an Indian postdoc might encounter before he strikes gold! Read on and leave your comments — have you had a similar experience, do you know someone who has or are your bracing up for this now?

[At MSK, Anupam studies host response to Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) infection. His lab got relocated from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), Seattle where he was originally recruited. “Moving from a relatively laid-back (but equally productive) West coast culture of Seattle to a lot busy and fast East coast culture is an experience in itself and I am currently adapting myself to this new environment, ” he says.]

Anupam Jhingran with partner Pooja Shukla on a vacation in San Juan Islands, Washington.

The postdoc’s dilemma

The postdoc culture is relatively unfamiliar to the non-academic crowd in India. The education system is such that students take up medicine or engineering right after high school. Those who earn a bachelor’s degree in other courses often target professions like business administration or civil services, resulting in fewer students taking up PhD positions. This mindset has led to non-recognition of the PhD/postdoc career path in our society and a postdoctoral stint is often perceived as an extended study period as opposed to a full time job.

Right from the beginning of PhD, we always struggle to convince our  families about the importance of our job, its potential to solve biological problems and improve living conditions. But the inability to convey that in easy-to-­understand language couple with the fact that PhD scholarships, despite being very competitive to earn, provides a modest income, doesn’t usually help build a good reputation of research as a career options.

As a result, we stop indulging in such discussions to avoid unnecessary frustration.

This peace of mind doesn’t stay for very long. At some point, we find ourselves in a situation again where discussing career prospects with someone uninitiated to a scientific career becomes inevitable. This is the time when we start seeking a matrimonial alliance through the ‘arranged marriage’ system. In a typical arranged marriage, it is always the families that get in touch with each other to talk about cultural compatibility and career prospects of the groom, but it usually doesn’t happen with postdocs as our families refuse to talk about something they themselves don’t understand.

The matrimonial process

So for postdocs it’s a different modus operandi, something pretty similar to finding a postdoc position. Although there are no applications cover letters involved but we have to have our biodata (or CV) ready! The biodata generally describes our education, profession, career path and prospects, birth information (astrology), caste and hobbies.

The traditional method to initiate the bride-search was to send the biodata to families who would then pass it on to potential ‘in-laws’ for assessment. However, with the recent emergence of matrimonial websites, the biodata dissemination process has become a lot easier and expeditious. These websites require us to register our details, upload a picture and then begin the process of “expressing interest” (something like a “friend request” on Facebook) in profiles of people we consider a potentially suitable match.

The profile moderator at the receiving end (usually a guardian) then visits the profile and conducts a preliminary screening based on our registered information. The problem with this profile-based, non-verbal representation of ourselves is that, our profession is not clearly understood by the visitor and a message is sent back to us stating “interest declined”. Some postdocs showcase their foreign resident-status to impress the visitor but since we have a huge number of Indian physicians and software engineers abroad, the poor postdoc is relegated to the back seat again. We are also required to state our annual income but an honest postdoc always leaves the salary column blank for the simple reason that his honesty will only have unfavorable implications in this situation.

The second phase in the search process is the interview with the would-be partner’s family members. During this entire conversation there are few things that we try to avoid, such as the discussion on funding situations, contract period with the employer, visa status (implications of 212E rule for J-1 visas) or anything, which in reality makes the postdoctoral stint look unstable. We try to hard to make them understand that postdoc is a full time job and not just a continuation of higher studies!

The third phase involves talking to the prospective bride and discussing compatibility. This is a very long phase and involves brutal revelation about job-related insecurities and financial limitations and ends with a mutual agreement to shower affection, provide support and long-term commitment, which would always withstand professional calamities.

How I fared

The first two phases were relatively quick for me because my future partner, Pooja shares a similar professional interest and background and luckily therefore her parents were familiar with the scientific career path. My only challenge was to convince them that except for my career, everything else with me is fairly stable, which I successfully did and cleared for the third phase.

This third phase, however, has turned out to be the longest. Pooja is a highly career oriented woman and was in the second year of her PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK when we met. I was a first year postdoc at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. Relocation at that point for any of us was not a sensible option. Therefore, we continued dating on Skype thinking that at some point, one of us would be ready to start a fresh job hunt.

Two years hence, nothing much has changed but only marriage dates. We still Skype but thankfully her PhD is coming to an end and so is our families’ eternal wait to see us married.

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.

Our ‘Away from home’ blogging series features one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab every Wednesday. 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.

We started the blog series in November 2012 and have just completed eight months, having featured 27 postdocs till now. The series has had excellent response from the scientific and research community worldwide.

For our regular readers, and those who are just joining us now, we provide a summary of the month’s entries, including an interactive  map pinpointing the labs these postdocs are based. All these interesting entries and summaries can be found under the ‘Away from home’ category of the Indigenus blog.

We will continue to update the map each Wednesday and hope that you will join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag. 

In July 2013, we featured researchers from Florida, Berlin and Tennessee — each unique in the science they do and the tips they offered to postdoctoral aspirants. ‘Away from Home’ also saw its 30th blog post this month, making a series a rich resource for anyone looking at labs abroad for a postdoc stint.

Here’s a round-up of the month’s blogs:

Living with plants:

Biswapriya Biswavas Misra is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and currently a postdoctoral researcher at Chen Laboratory, Department of Biology in University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. He says his passion for plant biology surpasses everything else in his life and offers a golden tip — that postdoc is just the beginning of a researcher’s life.

Sailing my mast:

Rohit Saluja is a PhD from the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, India and currently a postdoc fellow at Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany. He invests his energies in making use of the newly discovered “good” functions of mast cells and to find ways of controlling effects of “bad” mast cells. His postdoc tip: look for a salary if you are headed for Germany, not a fellowship.

Tweaking proteins for medicine:

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.

Have you seen our Away from home interactive map yet? Here it is pictured below with 30 flags from around the world. We update it every Wednesday with new postdoc experiences. Please feel free to suggest names of postdocs from unusual countries and disciplines we haven’t covered yet.

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.

We feature Rohit Saluja this Wednesday. Rohit is a PhD from the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow, India and currently a postdoc fellow at Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany. He invests his energies in making use of the newly discovered “good” functions of mast cells and to find ways of controlling effects of “bad” mast cells. His postdoc tip: look for a salary if you are headed for Germany, not a fellowship.

Rohit Saluja

Academic environment fueled curiousity

I was always curious about things. How and why were questions I always asked my parents and teachers. I wanted to gain knowledge about facts and to know the reason behind everything. My schooling was in a small place near Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.  I grew up surrounded by engineers. The environment around me was academic and that inspired me to do something good in life.

Nobel laureates & Karolinska

My PhD was from Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, where I trained with Dr Madhu Dikshit. I gained knowledge in the field of immunology and cell biology research. I evaluated the human and rat nitric oxide synthase (NOS) from a biochemical and molecular perspective in normal physiological and pathological conditions in different immune cells. After PhD, I got the opportunity to join the lab of Prof. Gunnar Nilsson at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden). He has been working in asthma immunology and allergic inflammation. I felt proud to be the part of Karolinska Institutet, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine every year.  I also got the opportunity to interact with Nobel laureates in 2010. They talked about their science,  career, experiences and discoveries.

After the successful completion of the project in Karolinska Institutet, I got an opportunity to work as a senior postdoctoral fellow with Prof Marcus Maurer at Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin (Germany). He is one of the leading scientists in the field of mast cell biology. The work environment of this lab is very nice and cooperative. The best part of the lab is that I have complete freedom to design and execute my project. We are a very big group, multicultural group of dedicated clinicians and researchers. Our lab is well equipped to research on finding the solution to cure allergy and take it from bench to clinic.

Of good and bad mast cells

The major goals of my research are to make use of newly discovered “good” functions of mast cells and to find ways of controlling “bad” mast cell effects. The structural goal is to strengthen an interdisciplinary network that will (1) assess the relevance for the human system of mast cell functions discovered in mice, (2) identify and characterize pathways and signals of mast cell activation and its subsequent effects, and (3) develop ways and tools that target and regulate these pathways and signals so that we can make use of mast cells and their beneficial functions. Recently, I have started working on a very exciting project where I am exploring the role of lL-33 on mast cell functions. IL-33 is a recently discovered cytokine that can activate different immune cells including mast cells. I am also exploring the role of the mast cell and IL-33 axis in different allergic diseases.

Paperwork woes, bone-chilling winters & helpful mates

I had initial hiccups but after some time when I settled and got used to the new place, life became much easier. The main problem that I faced was the language barrier. Official affairs (tax office, registration office) are a little bit complicated here because they only speak German. Thanks to my lab mates who helped me with this. Thereafter it was very easy to live here. However, winter in Germany is typically a grim and dark and, a chilly damp that goes straight to the bones.

Salary versus fellowship

It would be helpful for young researchers looking at postdoc positions in Germany to keep the following things in mind.

1. Before joining the lab, ask your supervisor if you will receive a fellowship (non-taxable) or a salary (taxable, covers all social insurance). Try to get a salary so that you can avail of all the social benefits.

2. Look how authorship is handled. How often and where does the lab publish?

3. Where is the mentor along the tenure-track timeline? Senior PIs with productive track records are safer. But junior faculty members may be more eager to get higher publications.

4. Will the mentor help you apply for small grants or fellowships? How stable is the current funing?

5. Is your potential mentor friendly to collaborations with other labs?

India, a part of me

I have not disconnected myself from India, not for a single day. I always keep track of what is happening in India. Thanks to all advanced technologies and internet,  I never feel that I am not part of India. But still, I miss a lot of things from India: first of all I miss Indians and Hindi. I also miss my friend-circle and dhaba tea. During our PhD that was the best place to discuss science and a good platform for troubleshooting. I also miss the festival season of India.

I would love to come back to India in the near future once I get a good opportunity. I am living a privileged life because of the basic education I obtained in India.  I really want to do something in return for my country and contribute to research in India.

Rohit Saluja is the 29th 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.