Graduate Student Highlight: Mrutyunjay Nair
Each week, the Department of Chemistry highlights several graduate students who are doing interesting and exciting work within the department. This week, we are featuring Mrutyunjay (MJ) Nair, who is a second-year graduate student in the Bollinger-Krebs group.
MJ’s work focuses on the mechanistic investigation of iron-dependent oxygenases that utilize intermediates that are kinetically efficient and catalytically potent.
This week, we interviewed MJ to learn more about his life in and outside of the lab. Please enjoy our conversation with Mrutyunjay Nair!
Question: What inspires you as a scientist?
Answer: I really enjoy my work, and that includes not only doing active research in the lab, but also discussing experiments and ideas with my supervisors and friends. Apart from the science itself, the opportunities to teach, mentor, collaborate, and help out with experiments are really enriching.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Ahmedabad, India. It is a developing metro city with lots of new buildings popping up. Despite that, the city still sports old, standing walls from hundreds of years ago when it was ruled by kings!
Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: I really enjoy biking, hiking, camping, and playing soccer, as they help me focus better. I also like listening to music. My favorite genres are country music and Western classical music. When it comes to books, I like to read comedy, crime fiction, popular science, and faith.
Q: What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?
A: I think that I would go on a hike with friends, talk a lot, and have a nice cup of tea!
Q: If you could have dinner with anybody (living or dead), who would it be and why?
A: Oh, I am perfectly happy when having a good meal with my family and close friends because I get to interact with the people I love. I would enjoy whatever cuisine they would choose to have.
Bonus Question: Do you have any fun science trivia to share?
A: I recently finished reading the book Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean. I found the book very interesting because it explained how the story of Earth is actually the story of gases. The most intriguing theme of the book is based on a central tenet: that when Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC in Rome, he fell to the floor with a final gasp. The author makes cogent arguments to prove that our very next breath might just contain one molecule from the last breath that Caesar took!
Thanks to MJ for these interesting and thoughtful comments. We hope you enjoyed this interview. Stay tuned for more graduate student highlights in the weeks to come!