Maisha Islam Monamee

Shamir Montazid, an online educator at 10 Minute school, is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. An avid writer, Shamir’s previous publication Heisenberger Golpo was one of the best-sellers at the Ekushey Boi Mela, last year. This time, he is all set to narrate his travel experiences from 23 cities across 12 countries, through his book, Urche Heisenberg, a collection of personal stories delivering basic instructions while planning a trip, be it the best places to eat or the major sites to visit.

Shamir developed a liking towards science since he was a child as he grew up watching documentaries and science shows on Nat Geo and Animal Planet. “Taking up genetic engineering at the University of Dhaka (DU) was one of the hardest decisions I had to take,” he mentions. “It was even harder to juggle my CGPA and work at 10 Minute School as sometimes, I had to work continuously for 15 hours a day.”

During this time, one of his teachers from DU got the opportunity to pursue a research with Oxford. “While scrolling my teacher’s Facebook posts, I fell in love with the city,” he adds. “My passion for science compelled me to apply to Oxford for my PhD.”

Getting into Oxford was not an easy journey, and to add to his list of difficulties, he failed to commence his research in 2017 due to insufficient funding, despite receiving an offer letter. Later that year, his supervisor from Oxford insisted him to visit the university as an academic visitor. “I decided to reapply in 2018 with better credentials, and finally received full funding from Bangabandhu Fellowship Trust,” he shares.

Speaking about his life in Oxford, the research lab is very intense and he often has to work for 10-12 hours a day, including tasks like designing various experiments, and executing them to generate new observations.

Currently, he is working on naked mole rats, as these animals are resistant to cancer and ageing. “I want to investigate the difference in their stem cells that prevent them from cancer and ageing, he says. “Studying the underlying mechanism can be further replicated in humans for treatment purposes.”

Despite his busy schedule, Shamir manages to take a long weekend off every other month to visit different cities in Europe. “My hard-work pays me with these small trips, and wander-lusting has now become an addiction”, he shares. Also, since the naked mole rats are exclusive to African regions, he often has to fly to South Africa to carry out his experiments.

The 20 chapters of Urche Heisenberg features Shamir’s breathtaking tales of bungee-jumping in Tibetan border, paragliding in Nepal, diving with sharks in London, catching wild animals in the African savannah, rafting in Bhutan, snorkeling and canoeing in Thailand. The book will be available at Tamrolipi stall and is intended to take the readers to an adventurous journey around the globe.

Photo: Avipsu das Gupta