\n\u201cThe Open University provided me with a solid foundation which I was apply to my research and I would like to share this story so that it may inspire Open University students and bring more credit into the brilliant system which the OU provides.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cPrimarily where I am now is down to what I gained from being an OU student. Working independently on projects to the see them through. Independent study really is the key thing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nAfter completing his OU degree Imran was accepted for a PhD with the University of Surrey and earlier this month he passed his viva examination to gain his doctorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe PhD was a different field to my OU degree and it was tough at first, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole aspect of getting papers published, studying a question that has not yet been answered.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou make blunders, like hitting the dartboard and someone sees you hit bullseye, but they don\u2019t see the 95 times you have missed it!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nImran is a science scholar through and through and enjoys reading more about areas outside his field for relaxation when he\u2019s not studying!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He puts his success down to resilience and keeping going when things get tough:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s going on in education right now is very interesting, a lot of people are upset due to the changes brought on by the pandemic, so it\u2019s important to know that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to fail. Everyone wants to be a success but you\u2019re not always going to be. I\u2019m ok with that and I think if you keep putting the effort it you will get something in the end.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nHis own personal work ethic has become habitual, he says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cI am someone who likes to start work immediately when I get up. I am not necessarily an early riser! But I do like to begin straight away. And I do like to take breaks, after 1.5\/2hrs to take my mind off things and it makes me work better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nDuring his OU studies Imran says he was very grateful for the support of his tutor, Graham Eaton, with whom he still keeps in touch.<\/p>\n
Mr Eaton, OU tutor in Maths, passed on his congratulations to Imran saying:<\/p>\n
\n“As Imran’s tutor for modules at second and third level, I always knew that he was destined for great things; it only seems like yesterday when we chatted after a tutorial about his maths interests! Having tutored Imran makes me proud to be an Associate Lecturer<\/em>.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nImran has now received an accepted an offer for the position of postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which begins next month. \u00a0His research is into cancer and genetics.<\/p>\n
Ambition to run a multi-discipline laboratory\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
He says: \u201cMy postdoc will be in computational biology, more specifically the process of X-chromosome inactivation with relation to cancer. I am looking forward to applying much of what I have learned in the Mathematical and Physical disciplines into very important biological challenges – I am quite excited!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nHis ambition is to run a research laboratory of his own, with researchers coming together from multi disciplines to work on different projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Open University graduate Imran Nasim is getting ready to jet off to the States to begin a research career at the tender age of 22. The Surrey scholar is celebrating after becoming what is thought to be the youngest person to achieve a PhD in Astrophysics. But despite his incredible success, Imran says he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[1525,1640],"class_list":["post-18070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories","category-uncategorized","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}