Away from home: A journey through academia

Every Wednesday, our ‘Away from home’ blog series features one Indian postdoc working in a foreign lab recounting his/her experience of working there, the triumphs and challenges, the cultural differences, what they miss about India, as well as some top tips for postdocs headed abroad. You can join in the online conversation using the #postdochat hashtag.

Today we feature Akhilesh Gaharwar. Akhilesh is currently a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, and will be joining Texas A&M University, USA as an assistant professor a couple of months later. He tells us about his fascinating academic journey from an undergraduate student in India to a faculty in a leading US University. Akhilesh exemplifies two things — that hard work has no alternative and that you can never go wrong if you follow your heart.