04/04/2018
https://www.facebook.com/bioyelp/photos/a.1678118085735894.1073741827.1631063647108005/2039391022941930/?type=3&theater
Meet Muhammad Waqas Khokhar! He is doing his PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University (United Kingdom).
He shares his story:
“Diversity is the beauty of nature and I am very keen on understanding this phenomenon. The global picture of diversity among plants looks marvelous when we try to ponder over the regulatory mechanisms which carve the , enhance diversity and help plants adapt to the local environment. In line with this knowledge, I have been enrolled as a . student since January 2017 to understand the (epi)genomic pathways regulating alternative splicing and helping plants escape their stressful and ever-changing environment. (when meets ) my passion, may just be a word for many others but for me, it’s a complete world.
Beautiful destinations often have difficult paths hence, keeping in mind this fact; I started this mysterious journey by indulging myself in this field with full enthusiasm, motivation, and commitment at Comsats Institute Of Information Technology,Sahiwal. As a student of pioneer batch of B.S(Hons.), I faced the music at the start but I believe, the beautiful thing about setbacks is that they introduce us to our strengths. I realized my strengths and performed analysis of bacterial strains to understand type six secretion system (T6SS) for my final year project.
Afterwards, I got a chance to fulfill my innermost desire of doing .Phil. from National Center for Bioinformatics ( ), Quaid-i-Azam University. I enhanced my knowledge by studying about the and utilized my skills to build a compact, interactive and user-friendly database titled ‘PAHG’ that depicts the Phylogenomic analysis of the Human Genome. Beside my academic grooming, I served for different scientific (National Academy of Young Scientists (NAYS), Pakistan., International Society for Computational Biology - RSG Pakistan) and social welfare organisations (YPO - Youth Peace Organization, Quaid-i-Azam Blood donation society).
I am grateful to my Creator, Allah, who enlightened my path and blessed me with best opportunities and at the right time. I started my professional carrier at National Agriculture Research Center ( ) which is one of the best centers of Pakistan. Following this, I got more blessings in the form of a research-oriented Job opportunity at and knowledge sharing job at Arid Agriculture University Rawlpindi. However I couldn’t start the next chapter of my life if kept re-reading the last one, so infinite hope and seeds of faith intrinsically motivated me to sail for a Ph.D. and I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
I am nominating Aftab Ahmad to share his story.
Last but not least, a humble advice for my mates, 'Brighten your vision with the best possible knowledge, and carve it for the betterment of humanity"
Waqas Khokhar