Hamed Mirzaei, PhD •  Medical Affairs Scientist

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I am a

MEDICAL AFFAIRS SCIENTIST

Hamed Mirzaei, PhD

Presented by AMGEN Foundation
MY PATH

How I became a consultant, educator, and medical affairs scientist.

MAJOR INFLUENCES

  • Watching 'The Flash'

    Watching the movie ‘The Flash’ as a kid inspired me to explore what it could mean to become a scientist.

  • Mastering a New Language

    When I moved to the US, I was still learning English. This delayed my starting college, and to this day, I still find reading to be a chore.

  • Teaching

    I never realized I liked teaching until I had to do it. That requirement opened up a whole new part of my career.

  • Need for Science Education

    After realizing how many members of the public are uninformed about science, I became very interested in looking for ways to address the issue.

Sometimes the job you want is different than you expected.

For a long time, I thought I wanted to work at a University focused on research. The further I got into my career, the more I realized that the day-to-day tasks and the requirements to get there weren’t actually as exciting as I’d thought. Luckily, I discovered just how many options are out there.

Major Milestones

Moving to the US

I grew up in Iran and India. When I moved to the US, I had to juggle a lot of responsibilities while pursuing my interests in STEM.

Earning My PhD

During my PhD, I discovered my love for teaching and realized that there were some parts of research I loved more than others.

Starting a Foundation

I wanted to give others who might not have the financial means an opportunity to share their scientific knowledge at conferences and create more access points for the public to engage with science.

Things I learned

along the way:

  • Not everything you love needs to be your career.

    I really enjoy philosophy, and started college pursuing it as part of a triple major. My professor pointed out that I didn’t need a degree in it to keep engaging with it throughout my life.

  • What you're proud of changes over time.

    When I first moved to the US, my greatest achievement was to get a job that could pay the bills. Then the goal changed to college, then to PhD, then to Post-Doc. My goals shifted as I grew.

  • Be persistent.

    My college experiences were complicated, as I was juggling a full time job. That meant not a lot of people knew me, so when I wanted to get lab experience, I needed to keep knocking on doors and sending emails until I found someone who would help make it happen.

  • There are lots of different paths through science.

    When I was in graduate school, I realized that while I loved forming hypotheses, designing experiments, and analyzing data, I didn’t always enjoy the slow-moving parts in between. I made deals with my peers to swap tasks, and eventually found roles that were more focused on the parts I loved.

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PHOTOGRAPHER: Gritchelle Fallesgon • Illustrator: Stephanie Singleton

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