Daring to dream

Charu:

Biopatrika, your very own online science communication, brings science closer to you in so many ways. Today, Scikonnect by Biopatrika welcomes all science enthusiasts to our Career Highlight podcast. I, Charu Gupta, and my co-host, Nikhil Kumar Tulsian, have been given the honor to hear about a dynamic career story that makes you never want to stop believing in your dreams, no matter where you begin.

Nikhil:

For our second episode, we have an excellent speaker and highly accomplished scientist, Assistant Professor Nilesh Kumar Dubey, at the National University of Singapore. Having begun his career in Maharashtra, India, as a dentist, Nilesh quickly realized his dreams were bigger. He has traveled the globe in his quest towards providing better dental care, leading him to amalgamate nanotechnology, biofabrication and 3D printing. How do you get so far in such a short time? Is it sheer hard work and motivation? Well, let’s hear it from the man himself. So, Nilesh, can you share more on your journey? 

Nilesh:

Thank you, Charu and Nikhil, for the wonderful words, and I’m very thankful that you guys invited me for this wonderful presentation. So, I will not take much time. I will just talk something about myself. As you mentioned, I’m a trained dentist. I have practiced for four years back at home, on and off. And I realized, you know, that being a clinician, because I come from a researcher’s family, my father is a researcher, my brother-in-law is a researcher, my sister got married in 2012. And that’s where we realized, you know, I met a scientist, another one from a biological perspective, and that was something which makes me, you know, go and try this research career. And I went to MD Anderson, and I did something totally very different, which was in liver cancer, nothing related to dentistry. And that was my first time, you know, I got exposed to dentistry. And then, I decided to do a Ph.D. I came to NUS, where I did my Ph.D. in graphene, nanocoatings and nanomaterials. After that, I went to Michigan and did my two years of postdoc in Michigan in biofabrication technology. And I joined the National University of Singapore very recently into the faculty of dentistry, where I’m exploring this biofabrication technology for some tissue transplantation. 

Charu: 

Yeah, that is “Wow.” I mean, I have to say, you sampled so many things throughout your career already. And there’s also so much more to come. What I’m really curious about is, I mean, you mentioned that you’re from a research-oriented family with different aspects, your brother-in-law and your father is scientific researcher, and you were a clinician. When did you decide or what was the turning point in your life that you said – Yes. This is what interests me. I want to be a scientist.