Hello everyone and welcome to my podcast, The Researchers Roundtable.
I am Prakash Kumar and I am thrilled to be your host.
I am a full-time postdoc at Durham University, UK.
In this podcast series, we will interact and interview the most incredible researchers
from all around the world.
Last week, UK celebrated postdoc appreciation week 2024 from 16-20 September.
Keeping this in mind, we are bringing to you some of the postdoc interviews and knowing
better about their experience and journey to the science.
In this first episode, we have a postdoc, Jawah Singh from Sainsbury-Raboudry, Cambridge
University, UK.
Hi Prakash, thank you for having me here.
So Jawah, I will start our interview with this question.
What inspired you to pursue a career in plant science?
Okay, so I will take two minutes to go back to the background of how I came to the plant
sciences.
So when I was a child, we used to go to our villages during the summer season, summer
vacation of the school.
So I used to go to the fields in my village and I used to see farmer applying a lot of
fertilizer in the field of the cereals like wheat or rice.
But when you see legumes filled, farmer don't apply fertilizer.
So I asked my uncles in the field that why the farmer in the wheat are applying fertilizer
but not in the legumes like chickpea.
So from there, I come to know about the legumes from nodules and this nodules are the house
of the rhizobia, particular kind of bacteria and this rhizobia in the nodules fixes atmospheric
nitrogen and this nitrogen in the legumes root nodules are known as the nitrogen fertilizer.
So legumes form their own nitrogen fertilizer in their nitrogen fertilizer factory which
is the nodule.
So from there, I got an inspiration to do something, some research in the legumes and
to extrapolate this nodule biology, the nodule from the root of the legumes to the cereal
crops like wheat and rice so that we don't have to apply this fertilizer in the cereal
crops and we can get rid of this dependency on the nitrogen fertilizer and then we can
have benefit of the legumes having the root nodulation.
This was my whole motivation that bring me into the plant science and now I am trying
to achieve those motivation here in the sense where I live at the University of Cambridge.
Coming back to another question that I am going to ask you Jorhar, so what was the most
exciting thing about your PSD journey?
So I started my PSD back in 2016 from India, there is an institute known as National Institute
of Plant Genome Research, in short we say NIPGR, it is a New Delhi, it is just next
to the JNU campus, Johan and Nehru University and we are an institute which was affiliated
to the JNU.
So there I worked on the chickpea, one of the legumes, major legumes that is grown in
India and widely consumed by all around people in India.
So I worked on the chickpea nodulation, I was trying to find out the signaling molecule
that is important for chickpea root nodulation and have identified the some receptors and
some signaling molecule which is important for the nodule formation of the chickpea and
if we knock out we will have a very very less nodulation and if we over express then we
will have the more nodule.
So that was the work that I did back in India during my PSD days that working on the chickpea
nodulation and why I did my PSD in the chickpea because chickpea is important.
We grow, we are the largest producer, if you talk about the India India is the largest producer
of chickpea but still India import a lot of chickpea from the outside.
So there is a need to improve the chickpea products and I was thinking that root nodulation
in the chickpea working on the root nodulation of chickpea can be one of the way by which
we can improve the nitrogen fixes in the chickpea and we can reduce importing chickpea from
outside of the country and we can get more yield in the chickpea.
This was the thing that I was doing back in India for my PSD.
So you did your PSD and if I am not mistaken in India we have a 4 to 6 years of PSD which
is quite a long time you know.
So what things matter according to you when choosing a PSD program?
So you are right in India PSD is sometimes tough.
So finding a good guide is the first step and your institute should be well funded.
If you have a good guide, good supervisor, PSD supervisor then it is very good and it
depends on your luck whether you are going to have a good guide or not.
So and then the topic of interest if you are getting a topic of research which is of your
interest then you are happy.
If suppose you have a good guide and a good topic that you are interested in working for
your PSD as well as after the PSD for the postdoc and then starting your own career then it
is very good.
It is like 100 out of 100 that you have a very good guide, you have a very good institute
and you have got the topic that you are looking to invest your whole life.
So that is the perfect thing but these are the perfect situation but it does not happen
all the time.
You may get some guide which are very nasty that you never want to meet them again after
a PSD.
So you have to work out with that.
You have to be like, you have to be very adjustable in that sense and then you should have very
good friends during the PSD.
The role of the friends are very important.
If you have a good friends then it can help you to boost your motivation, your energy.
It can help you to survive.
I would love to use the word survive.
PSD is all about surviving those 5 to 6 years.
So having a good friend will certainly help you.
So have a good friend.
Try to make a good friend in your PSD time.
Jor, next I would love to know how did you maintain your work-life balance while you
are doing your PSD?
So this is also a very important question that I think all the newcomers who are coming
to the PSD or the research would know.
So when I started my PSD, I got into the running.
I got into the marathon running.
So I used to run, suppose my lab was from 9.30 morning to 5.30 in the evening.
So after 5.30 I used to come to the room, I used to get freshen up and then I used to
go to the JN Uchohalanaharu University stadium where I used to spend like 1 hour to 1 hour
and 30 minutes running, walking.
So this was my daily routine.
Spending time out of the lab in the nature.
In the evening time it was very pleasant.
So that was one of the things that I was doing throughout my PSD that walking in the nature
for 1 and a half hour and I ran lots of marathon.
So this was the another thing that kept me motivated.
Wow, yeah, that's right.
So you finished your PSD in 2021 or 2022?
22.
Then what was the next step?
Because after PSD we don't have any job.
Yeah.
For like, what was the struggle for getting a post job and how frequently you got the
opportunities to go for interview and all.
Do you have any experience?
Like it was a quick or it was a more struggle.
Yeah, so after finishing the PSD getting a post job sometime gets tough.
So what I had done before, even before submitting my thesis, I started looking for the supervisors
with whom I can work for my post job.
So I submitted my thesis in December 2021 and then my Viva in June 2022.
But before submitting my thesis in 2021, I started looking for the positions for the
researchers for the professor with whom I can work.
So I looked into the different labs all around the world and then I found a professor in
the Mexico in the university named as Unam Autonomous National University of Mexico.
There is a professor known as Osvaldo Valdez Lopez.
He's a Mexican guy and he's a very good guy.
I must recommend anyone working on the root nodulation to must talk and if you are getting
a chance to work with Osvaldo, go ahead and go work with him.
You'll get a very good experience as a scientist and as well as a human being.
He's a nice guy.
So after finishing my PhD, I went to Mexico to do my root nodulation research on another
legume that is common bean.
Now common bean is another important legume for the Mexico.
So I worked on the common bean root nodulation in Mexico with Professor Osvaldo Valdez Lopez.
So Joahar, what is your post-doc story for finally landing the San Sperry laboratory
at Cambridge University?
So after finishing my one year of research with Professor Osvaldo Valdez Lopez in Mexico,
I was looking to use my knowledge of nodulation and the basic research what I have done in
my PhD and the first post-doc.
So I wanted to use this knowledge to create some transonic which may have a higher nitrogen
fixes and ability.
So I looked into a University of Cambridge website where we have the career page where
you can see the different opportunities, the open positions.
So I looked into the page and I found that my current boss Dr. Sebastian Saunak is having
an open position where he wanted to hire a post-doc who have experience on working on
the nodulation.
So I wrote to him, I applied him and he was very happy and very excited to have him in
the group and now here I am in the San Sperry laboratory, University of Cambridge working
on the legumes trying to improve the nitrogen fixation in the legumes.
So Jwaha, how did you see yourself as a post-doc and what kind of things you have learned from
your colleagues during this period?
So first thing I would like to agree with you that PhD is a kind of a training where
we used to meet our supervisor, PhD supervisor regularly.
We used to have some seniors who are going to help us in our research experiments and
we have a guide who is going to monitor us on a regular basis we can say.
But then the post-doc, the things change and change a lot.
So when, so the things I realized about the post-doc when I went to the Mexico, there
I got a boss, my professor Oswaldo Valdez-Ropegi and from there I learned that the PhD and
the post-doc are quite different.
So in the post-doc you are independent.
So it is not the UK but I'll say it is a Mexico where I learned the skills that you
should have as a post-doc to be independent and then I carried that skill back in UK.
So I think that helped me a lot and you are right.
It is like independent.
You are just like your any other colleague, your supervisor, your supervisor, your co-colleague.
So you have to think independently and you have to go ahead independent with your research.
Wow.
So Johar according to you, how do you explain the role of collaboration in scientific area
or in your research field when you came to UK and back there in Mexico but specifically
regarding this project where you are working.
Yeah, collaboration is very important.
Collaboration is a very important part of the research here.
So I am a part of a bigger project known as the INSA.
INSA is a research project led by Professor Giles Aldroyd who is the current director
of the Crop Science Center here in the University of Cambridge.
So INSA stands for Enabling Nutrient Symbiosis for Agriculture and in the INSA we have around
50 great scientists working on the nitrogen fixation and the AM symbiosis.
The goal is to improve the nutrient acquisition.
So this project is all about the collaboration.
So we are into a very collaborative research project where you can understand.
We have 7 to 8 different countries and we are member of 50 researchers working on the
single goal that is achieving the sustainability.
We want to improve the crop by achieving the sustainable nutrient acquisition.
Wow, yeah that was the scientific aspect of your career.
If I come to close to your personal one, like how you maintain your life work balance because
you have a family, you are living in a country away from your hometown India.
So how you see as a person how you have developed yourself 10 years ago when you were in India
and now?
Yeah, so the first thing that I would like to say is when you come out of India you get
closer to your friends and family.
If you have some friend back in India then you will try to talk with them on a regular
basis over phone call or over WhatsApp call or whatever it may be.
And suppose if you are married then you will have your family here, your wife and your kids
then the bonding between you and your friends and family get closer.
That is the first thing which I can relate as you say about this question.
So I think as you move away from your country your bonding with your friends and family
gets stronger and stronger and that helps you to sustain actually.
That is very important.
Yeah, that's important.
So next I am coming to the same point like why the diversity of the people in a registered
or in any lab matters and how that saves our understanding the world better.
So if you talk about the diversity here in the Sainsbury laboratory, University of Cambridge,
we have a people from all around the world in our group, in our team.
If we say we have people from UK, from Germany, from India, from France and if you look in
the institute, SLC you will find the people from Israel, from your Cyprus, from France,
all around Mexico, Chile, Argentina.
So it is a very, very international environment in the SLCU where you meet people from the
different country, different cultural background, different personal background and then you
talk about the different things.
So I think having a different perspective of on the same thing or on the different thing
is very important for the personal growth.
So I think coming to the SLCU and seeing this international environment was very, very much
motivating and something very new as we are in India, we are only some of the Indian people
but when you go out you see people from all around the world and living happily working
toward a single goal so it is really fascinating.
So Johar what kind of advice would you like to give the new postdoc fellow who is looking
career in the science?
So for a postdoc I will say in a PhD you have done a good research and I am looking for a
postdoc and postdoc is the time duration where you will do a research and then you look for
a, you are going to looking for a position, PI position, an independent group leader position.
So the postdoc position should be very good, the boss should be very supportive and the
position should be such that you can get that strength and the publication and everything
so that you can apply for a PI position.
Back in suppose if you are from India we are going to apply for a PI position in India
or if you are from another country then you will try to move back to the same your original
country, country of origin.
So I think having a very good postdoc institute and a very good boss as well as the research
project is very important.
Yeah, that I agree.
So Johar I will again come to the very final question.
What are your future goals and where you look yourself in the future after this postdoc
or maybe another postdoc?
Yeah, so the future goal if I talk about the future goal the first or the nearby goal for
me is to improve the crop legume.
I am working here on the soybean and the cowpea two important, ergonomically important crop
legumes.
I am trying to improve the nitrogen fixation by improving the nodule symbiosis.
I want to have a higher protein content in the seed.
So first that is my first goal that is having the higher protein content in the seed of
the soybean and the cowpea and then looking for the position back in India.
So that is ultimate goal.
That is the final goal that you should get some position back in India and then you can
start your own lab working on the nodulation.
You can hire the young minds and then together you can achieve the higher goal of having
the final goal is to have the cereals which can have the nodules and the rhizobia and
you don't have to apply the nitrogen fertilizer.
That is the final goal.
It seems like we are using a lot of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers which is
somehow disrupting our health, not only our health but soil health also which you don't
talk about and nowadays mostly people are thinking about organic food and all.
So this concept brings something which is organic farming.
You are not applying a lot of chemicals but you are still growing those crops which has
the impact in the society.
Okay.
So Joahar thank you so much for coming to our podcast and being our guest and sharing
your thoughts and experience a wonderful journey from India to Mexico, Mexico to UK and I'm
looking forward for adventure findings from your work.
So Joahar thank you so much for coming to our podcast.
Thank you.
Hello guys.
So that was Joahar saying he is a postdoc at Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University.
So I will see you in the next episode with a new person, a new story, a new journey from
another postdoc.
So stay tuned.
I will see you in the next episode.
Bye.