Defying the odds!

When I was an undergraduate student in physics, I did not have good professors. When I asked for a letter of recommendation, for instance, one insulted me in my face saying that all he can do to talk about the way I dress up. Some said it is better that I join my father's blacksmith factory because I have no future in physics and one particular professor used racial slurs because he felt that was the best to educate me. 

Since I left my undergraduate school, I found my interests and I have been working day and night to solve a few interesting problems. I finished three graduate degrees (two master's degrees and a Ph.D.), and currently, I am a PostDoc at the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. Had I listened to my undergraduate professors I would have not been here. God knows, how many people are victims of their ill-mannered behavior and how many dreams are killed. 

Both of my parents have just an elementary school education, and I was born in a small city of Ramshir in the southwest of Khuzestan province in Iran. Being the oldest child of the family everyone expected that I get married at a young age, get any job that makes a living and have a life that is a little different than my father. I am humbled to have defied all the odds and proved my undergraduate professors wrong. Now I spend my days solving scientific problems, and my night reading books on behavioral sciences, psychology, biographies, economics, cognitive sciences, and history to name but a few. I an excessive learner and I finish 2-3 books and 10's of papers every month.

I have attended interesting talks and met great people. A few days ago, for instance, I met with May-Britt Moser, the 2014 Nobel laureate of physiology or medicine. Last year I met with Venki Ramakrishnan (2009 Nobel laureate of chemistry), Rainer Weiss (2017 Nobel laureate in Physics), Donna Strickland (2018 Nobel laureate of Physics), and Gérard Mourou (2018 Nobel laureate of Physics) among many other great and intelligent people. I am humbled to be where I am, and I do plan to speed up my progress.