{"id":3595,"date":"2020-08-19T11:15:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T11:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/who-am-i-when-i-am-not-a-researcher\/"},"modified":"2025-02-21T05:03:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T05:03:51","slug":"who-am-i-when-i-am-not-a-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/who-am-i-when-i-am-not-a-researcher","title":{"rendered":"Who am I when I am not a researcher?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">The world is not linear. It never was. But it took me a long time to understand that. But it is fun trying to evolve around this non-linear world, especially now that I am determined\u2026 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I am a researcher in the field of biology. Specifically, I have worked in the areas of soil microbiology, industrial water-disinfectant testing, cosmetic and food testing, as well as reproductive biology. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">At the beginning of my research career, I took up writing for short-term projects alongside my full-time research work \u2013 mostly technical documents such as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Eventually, technical writing converged with non-scientific technical writing such as translating speeches, writing web content etc. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">After my last research project, which lasted six and a half years, I started considering science communication as one of my career options. Since research was out of my life, I started exploring opportunities for creative writing, and continue to do so even today.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">For about a year and a half, I was part of a creative writing forum, which gave me the opportunity to polish my skills in this domain and helped me gain confidence that I was moving in the right direction. Creative writing is an integral part of my life now. As I was writing about different topics and keeping myself updated about the science going around me, I also developed an interest in streams of science other than biology and then realized that the boundaries within me were collapsing! I was a happier person wanting to know more about things and people and the world at large. I was finally out of the ivory tower created by someone else for me and, for the first time, driven by genuine curiosity.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">As researchers we are required to focus on one particular problem for a prolonged period of time and I know that I am always going to love doing that. Yet, this time away from research that I have substantially invested in creative writing has yielded much more for me than any research project I had worked on. I have been nominated as best author of the week for more than twelve times now and that is something I am yet to get a grasp of!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">After having identified as only a researcher all these years, it was a welcome change to be able to discover my love not only for writing but also for traveling, understanding philosophy, discussing socio-political issues, painting, photography and exploring different cuisines. It reawakened the objective scientist in me who has always made a conscious choice of accepting research projects in different areas of science only to keep the objectivity thriving. When I look back upon my life today, I realize that I never made those choices for securing credit. I have always believed in doing the right thing and my choices reflect who I am as a person. I am an explorer, an objective one at that. I like understanding new things and concepts and probably that is one of the reasons why in the past two years I have been drawn to areas of technology that have never before been my forte per say. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of them. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0in 0in 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">As my journey in scientific communication continues, I will try to keep that explorer in me alive. Whether it be non-scientific writing, technical writing or research, the only constant is me. Yet another thing I know for sure is that I cannot be far from research for long. So maybe I might get back someday. Who knows what life throws at you next? Maybe there are many happy surprises down the line\u2026 There is no harm in being hopeful.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world is not linear. It never was. But it took me a long time to understand that. But it is fun trying to evolve around this non-linear world, especially now that I am determined\u2026 I am a researcher in the field of biology. Specifically, I have worked in the areas of soil microbiology, industrial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2205,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2670],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-life-changes-and-transitions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who am I when I am not a researcher? | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After leaving academia, I began to explore other interests apart from research\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/who-am-i-when-i-am-not-a-researcher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who am I when I am not a researcher? 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