I grew up in a research and development campus where my father is a scientist. Research and curiosity were constantly encouraged and this prompted me to take up medicine as a career, a field that offers tremendous prospects for research and discoveries. Throughout medical school I tried to be involved in research and attempts at trying out new ideas, be it in the lab or working with human subjects. I carried this through my residency and now my fellowship. The idea of studying a topic or issue that has so far not been treaded upon seems to be extremely exciting and challenging.I have always wanted to be a scientist and contribute something to the human cause and what better way to achieve this than by doing medical research? Medical school taught me the art of medicine and the research projects that I undertook taught me the science of medicine. What interests me the most is a path that combines the two, and one way to make that possible is to be an academic physician. I have always wanted to work in a teaching hospital or academic institution, one that would give me the opportunity to take care of patients, give me the time and resources to carry out trials and present them and to be able to interact with trainees.I hope to develop the career of an academic oncologist and the aspect that has captivated me the most is that of drug development. Any major change in oncology, at least for medical oncologists involves the invention and discoveries of new drugs and every single one of these has to be tested in the setting of a phase I trial. In order to develop a successful career as an academic oncologist, one needs to be able to conduct well-designed clinical trials and to be able to publish reproducible respected genuine papers. I also strongly feel that quality is more important than quantity in terms of final outcome of all the efforts and work. I hope to be working in this field in the future and be able to carry out my ideas and imp...
