Building a Competitive and Multifaceted Research Portfolio: An Outsider’s Perspective

• Sudip Das, PhD, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
• Sponsored by Women Chemists Committee of the ACS California Section
• 10:30am-Noon, Online via Zoom, Free, Registration required
• Please register before Thursday, May 11, 2023, 12 noon.

Abstract:

Why an outsider? The reason is that in all aspects of life: research, social life or acquiring new skills, I have always stepped out of my comfort zone and placed myself as an outsider. Even for this talk where all of us are scientists (budding, active, career seeking, or retired), I will address an audience of different genders on a different continent. I will talk about my research, how to build multiple expertise and women in STEM. This will include my personal experiences and how I integrate the correct form of diversity of minds and perspectives. I will not only share my journey as an outsider furthering my career and contributions of my peers throughout, but also give you insights on research and life at my home base in Europe.

About the Speaker:

Born in the city of joy, Kolkata, India, Sudip’s early life was urban and cosmopolitan with an upbringing including several languages, cultures and perspectives. Sudip studied Bachelors at Utkal University and Masters at KIIT University in India. For his Master’s research, he received the Swiss Academy of Sciences Fellowship to go the prestigious ETH Zürich, Switzerland, where he worked on Salmonella infections. Fascinated by the research and life in Europe, Sudip obtained his doctoral degree summa cum laude in human bacterial infection of the lung and blood from the esteemed University of Wuerzburg in Germany. During his PhD, he was awarded multiple fellowships including DAAD and awards like Biocenter Science Award. He personally has always focused on acquiring new skills. Following his newfound interest in computational biology, he moved back to Switzerland with the prestigious Marie-Curie fellowship for postdoc at the University of Lausanne. Here, he combined conventional microbiology with computational biology to become a dual-expert. Since June last year, Sudip is a Research Group Leader at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland, where he is laying foundation for the first lab nation-wide dedicated to comprehensive human lung microbiota research. In addition, he is an evaluator for European Union Horizon research grants and reviewer for prestigious publication houses like Springer-Nature, Elsevier, American Society of Microbiology, PLoS etc. He’s a big proponent of Women in STEM and has mentored several female scientists throughout his career.