Editor Note: For those students who wish to pursue their higher studies in the area of Neuroscience or pursue job prospects as a medical writer, the interview of Shashank Tandon interviewed by Shyam Krishnamurthy.

The Interview

Early Career

Helping patients suffering from chronic diseases requires thorough research on the latest treatment strategies and effective communication between scientists and medical practitioners.

Shashank Tandon, our next pathbreaker, Medical Writer at Nucleus Global, a medical communications company, works with pharmaceutical companies to disseminate information on research related to drugs being developed by them.

Shashank talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about his doctoral work in Neuroscience, his postdoctoral research on the neural mechanisms of drug addiction, and his clinical experience as an Addiction Counselor.

For students, a career path need not be linear. On the other hand, it can evolve over time based on your interests and aspirations!

Shashank, what can you tell us about your background?

I grew up in an academic background at the then University of Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) campus. My father was a professor of Physics at the University, and my mother, who is a chemistry post-graduate, taught in a school on the campus.

All my schooling was from the St. Gabriel’s Academy in Roorkee. I took biology and mathematics as electives for my 11th and 12th standard.

My father loves reading and hence, while I was growing up, our house was filled with books on different subjects. The ones that fascinated me the most were those on human behavior and psychology. As a kid, glancing through them and learning about how experiments were conducted to understand the functioning of the brain kindled my curiosity and fascination with the brain and how it controls our behavior.

I also remember visiting my father’s department and noticing researchers working in the laboratory. While I never developed much of an interest in physics, those visits made me curious about research and how it is pursued.

What did you do for graduation/post-graduation?

I did my bachelor’s in Human Biology from the All India Institute I did my bachelor’s in Human Biology from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi and my master’s in physiology from the same institute. My Ph.D. is in Neuroscience from the National Brain Research Center in Manesar, Haryana.

The interview will continue…