The support system

“I had seen the life of PhD students when I was doing my B.Tech and was quite convinced that I wasn’t meant for a PhD. I wanted to study medicine but couldn’t clear the exams. Nonetheless I still had interest in Biology and wanted to forward my career in healthcare management. In those days, the next best option was to opt for a Bachelor’s in Biotechnology. My college was primarily an agriculture college and had a thriving research environment which I believe changed my mind into pursuing a PhD.

Master’s was an obvious choice after B.Tech. I had applied to many integrated MS-PhD as well as M.Tech programs. IISER was still a very new institute back then and not many people knew about it. Our application pool was small and I was not aware of the faculty or the research that was conducted in the institute. During the IISER interview, I remember being asked to name a few people with whom I wanted to work in the institute if given a chance. I was rather embarrassed to admit that I had never properly gone through their website and had only opened it to check if I made it to the interview rounds. I guess my honesty made a mark and I was accepted in IISER as an integrated MS-PhD candidate.

The laboratory that I joined initially worked on immunology. And although the science was great, it was a fairly new laboratory and I had a hard time dealing with issues that forced me to quit the…