Medicinal Computational Chemist
Pfizer

Yogesh S

0.00.00 My name is Yogesh S and I’m a Medicinal Computational Chemist working at Pfizer. Here at Pfizer my work, my job involves is basically looking at the early stage of drug discovery, to be able to use computer as a means to aid drug discovery. So which means that they’re using computational chemistry to come up with new molecules for certain diseases or tweaking the existing molecules to make them better for the patients.

0.00.30 My father was a banker and my mother used to work for the Municipality in Bombay so not a lot of science background there. But there’s one thing that they gave me since I was a child, all the way up to school and college, is the opportunity to do and try as many things as possible.

0.01.00 As a result of that I was, I took up a lot of arts classes, you know I was a magician and I did some yoga and I played cricket and I took almost all the exams that were relating to art or science and they were extremely supportive and encouraging cos they knew at some point in time, you know, there was something that would click for me that I would think like that’s the thing for me. When I was in school I wanted to travel abroad. I wanted to go somewhere and, you know, in search for higher education, or do something different.

0.01.30 So I think when I was in school, about 7 / 8, sixth / seventh grade I would say, I always had this in the back of the mind that maybe I want to go out, look at a different world and maybe look at my world from outside here and, which was terrific actually that I did that. I went to university in Mississippi and when I decided when I was in Bombay, decided to go to Mississippi, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

0.02.00 It was a small university town actually. So you can imagine a group in Bombay with 15 million people going to a small town with 25,000 people. I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere and I was in the middle nowhere. But it was really nice. The people were extremely nice and very friendly and it’s like over the years the small town kind of grows on you and that’s what it did on me is it sort of grew on me.

0.02.30 At which point I didn’t want to leave and go into a big city where you get lost and you know you don’t have traffic problems and nothing, so and everybody knows you so you go in a supermarket and you know five people, cos it’s a small town. And sort of, I kind of started liking that. So it was very positive experience for me. I was there about four and a half, five years at which point I completed my PhD and I wanted to basically explore some part of Europe.

0.03.00 So came to Sweden and I was in Sweden for about four years which was a terrific time in my life and I was doing post-doctorate at one of the universities in Sweden. And from there I made the transition to work in a real world pharmaceutical company like Pfizer, which has been tremendous actually. I really, really get inspired by people who are passionate about whatever they do, it doesn’t matter. It can be science, it could be sports.

0.03.30 The late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, I used to get inspired by him really very much because again the passion, he really had the passion for animals and the crocodiles and the kind of job he did. And I’m definitely able to say my wife, because she left her career so that she could come here with me to, so that I can advance in my career and that’s a big sacrifice. So I think there’s a few inspirational figures that have helped me where I am today.

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