Growing up as youngest of three siblings in a middle class family in India, there was no dearth of role models in my early life. It was probably a combination of my love for biology and a strong desire of the family to have at least one doctor that led me to become a physician. After attending medical school at Bellary, a rural part of southern India, it was increasing clear that pediatrics is what I find most interesting. The first time I was exposed to tertiary level neonatal intensive care unit and some degree of clinical research was during post-graduation course in pediatrics in India.

A short stint in the UK and Pediatric Residency at Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospital in Brooklyn cemented my interest in neonatology and clinical research. It was only during the fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at University of Miami that I had my first true experience in research in respiratory physiology. Here I met two of the best minds in the field of respiratory physiology, Drs Eduardo Bancalari and Nelson Claure, who ingrained the importance of asking the right question first and then devising the right tools for any type of research. This combination of great clinicians and researchers along with the support staff at our pulmonary laboratory has provided an ideal environment to ask clinically relevant questions and try to find ways to answer them. My current project was the result of one of these questions about the factors affecting tissue oxygenation and importance of each of these factors.

I think one of the most important quality for a being a good scientist is an inquisitive mind and some degree of ambiguity. I would advise young researchers to keep asking questions, find good mentors, and a team of similar minded researchers with whom you can discuss your ideas and help develop them into reality. Above all, try to strike a balance between work, family, and friends, and everything else that brings joy to you.

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