I had the awesome opportunity to sit and just talk with the PhD candidate with whom I work with closest.
M: Where are you from? R: I’m originally from India M: What did you want to be when you were little? R: I wanted to be a Medical Doctor M: Do you have any siblings? R: I have an older sister M: Did your parents want you to be anything? R: Not really, my mom didn’t want me to be a doctor, because in India, in order to be sucessful you have to have a relative in the medical field and we didn’t have any. She thought that if I became a medical doctor I would really suffer. M:What was your academic plan? M:What did you end up doing academically? I got my bachelors degree in Engineering with a major in biotechnology. I then went on to get my masters in biological science again with a major in biotechnology and now I’m working on getting my PhD. M: How long will it take you to get your PhD? R: For this department it takes an average of 5 years. M: How long have you been at this research institution? R: I’ve been here 3 years so I probably have around 2 more. M:What was your first job? R: I was a Quality Analyst at a Pharmaceutical company. However it was more of a volunteer position, I wasn’t actually paid. M:How many cities have you lived in? 3 M:Which ones? R: Banglore (India), Lowell over in Massachusetts,and Albany. M:What’s one fun fact about yourself? R: Hm, that’s a bit difficult I’m actually very good at hula hooping. M: If you were to give advice to someone who’s considering going into the biology whether as as a Medical Doctor or as a Researcher what would you tell them? R: I’d say do as you’re doing and experience all that you can about your field of interest ahead of time. I almost became a medical doctor but looking back I probably would have been miserable in medical school. M: Why don’t you think you would have enjoyed medical school? R: I think I’m just a better match for biological research I wouldn’t want to memorize tons of rote information. M: What’s your favorite part of research? R: It’s one of the few fields where you can have a genuine scientific question and you get to spend your days chasing after the answer. M: Is there anything else not covered that you’d say is important? R: I’d just say that one of the major driving factors to get into research was the loss of my father to cancer during undergrad. He passed away within 6 months after diagnosis and that left me with a “What the heck?” feeling. I though that we were so advanced when it came to medical science that even if we couldn’t cure cancer we could at least prolong a patients life. Finding out that wasn’t the case was a shock and motivated me to research cancer. M: Can I ask what kind of cancer he had? R: He had prostate cancer which is typically one of the cancers that you can have and still live with for a very long time but because he had a rare strain he died very quickly. M: I’m very sorry about that. That is an incredible motivator to come to work everyday. R: Absolutely M: Thanks so much for taking the time to sit down with me!
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Michaela BentonI'm lucky enough to go to this amazing school that has this amazing program that lets me learn amazing things. Archives
December 2017
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