We are delighted to share that Pezhman Baran has joined our Medical Data Science team in Helsinki.
Pezhman is a friendly and sociable person who likes to meet new people. “I like to cooperate with and help other people. Vice versa, I’m also not too shy to ask for help! However, I must admit that nothing satisfies me more than solving complicated problems completely on my own,” Pezhman starts our chat half-jokingly.
At his core, Pezhman is fascinated to get to the root of how things work. “I’ve always been interested in numbers, patterns, and computers. I tend to have a very holistic view of problem solving: I like not only to be prepared and look at all the aspects of a problem before I start tackling it, but to come up with innovative solutions by thinking out of the box.”
Pezhman has a bachelor’s degree in forest engineering from University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran. In 2011 he got a chance to do a master’s degree in forest science and business at the University of Helsinki and moved to Finland. “I got a job as project coordinator in the Birch genome project in 2013 and got a PhD position in the Anna-Liisa Laine lab to do plant pathogen interaction studies in 2015. I graduated with my PhD in bioinformatics and genetics earlier this year”, he recalls.
“I felt this was the professional environment I’d like to develop my career in, and grow as a person.”
After university Pezhman felt that he would like to apply what he had learned to real world data, and feel the impact of his work in real life situations. At the same time, he still loved to be involved in research and keep himself up to date with what’s happening in the scientific world. “In all this, MedEngine seemed like an excellent fit for me, especially considering what I was aiming for! I felt that this was a professional environment I’d like to develop my career in, and grow as a person. I love the friendly atmosphere and the nice people that I now call my colleagues here at MedEngine. The office and its location are superb!”, Pezhman exclaims. “Above all, I like the values and goals MedEngine is pursuing. The thing that inspires me the most in my work is learning new things and doing meaningful work”, he concludes.
“Some of the most intriguing things I’ve been involved in include working in a wet lab and extracting DNA and RNA.”
“Some of the most intriguing things I’ve been involved in professionally include, working in a wet lab and extracting DNA and RNA—and just plain thinking about how people even came up with the complex protocols to do that! Or creating 3D live plots in the R programming language. That, I consider super interesting.”
Pezhman currently resides in Espoo with his wife and two lovely kids, Lily and Leo. He tells us that outside of work he likes things like hiking and travel, the latter especially by land, road-tripping. “In music I’m pretty much interested in all sorts, but classic music and heavy metal are my favorites.” Then comes the surprise: “I’m also very interested in astrophysics, and really anything that explains the universe in layman’s terms!”, he reveals.
“A big hobby of mine used to be horseback riding and show jumping!”
At MedEngine, we’re always interested in the possibility of having furry friends. So is the case with Pezhman, as well. “Well, currently I do not have any pets, but previously I’ve had a bunch: cats, chickens, and even domestic canaries. A big hobby of mine used to be horseback riding and show jumping. People are usually surprised to hear that! I’m also interested in world politics and am an agnostic person”, Pezhman summarizes, concluding our interview.
Great to have you with us, Pezhman. A Warm Welcome!
