Hi There!



Imagine a journey that begins with dirt under my fingernails and ends with me muttering scientific jargon to plants (they’re surprisingly patient listeners). I’m Jonaid, and my adventure in science has taken me from the rice paddies of Bangladesh to the greenhouses and labs of Europe, Japan, and now the U.S., with plenty of laughs (and a bit of dirt) along the way.


It all started when I decided to tackle a degree in Agricultural Science. Little did I know, it would earn me not just a diploma but also two golden tickets from Japan: the Nagao National Environment Foundation (NEF) Fellowship for Nature Conservation and the JENESYS 2019 Fellowship for Agriculture. These fellowships let me dive into international conservation and cultural exchanges, confirming what I’d always suspected: science is way more fun when you’re on the move.


Fueled by curiosity (and, let’s be honest, a lot of coffee), I packed my bags for the Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Plant Health. This leg of the journey led me to the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in Spain, where the Mediterranean sun makes even biochemistry feel relaxing, and then to Germany’s University of Göttingen, where I learned plant science by day and how to navigate ancient cobblestone streets by night. And yes, I made it to a Summer School in Angers, France, and an internship at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Sweden, where I managed not to embarrass myself too much while learning the finer points of plant evolutionary biology.


As for my research? Think of it as an all-you-can-eat buffet of science: plant breeding, molecular biology, plant pathology, bioinformatics, evolutionary biology, synthetic biology, machine learning, and genomics. Now, I’m tackling the mysteries of plant life as a Ph.D. student in a dual-degree program in Molecular Plant Science (MPS) and Plant Biology (PLB) at Michigan State University (MSU). Here, I’m knee-deep in experiments, with only slightly fewer lab accidents than breakthroughs.


When I'm not unraveling the mysteries of the plant kingdom, you might find me exploring new cultures, basking in the beauty of nature, or concocting culinary delights in my kitchen (my experiments there are mostly edible, I promise!). And who knows? Maybe one day you’ll see me accepting a Nobel Prize—after all, I like to think of myself as a Nobel Laureate in the making!

Join me on this exhilarating journey, and let's uncover the wonders of science together!


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