Hamid Nikbakht
I was born in Tehran (Iran). I am the second oldest among my siblings (one older sister and two younger brothers).
Aside from my enthusiasm for science, I love: mountain climbing (specially outdoor rock climbing), animation, music (I’m very picky on this one), writing, movies (again very picky), computer graphic (back in Iran, used to work part time for a publishing company designing their book covers), photography (not professionally), doodling, skiing and cooking new recipes. I’m also passionate about carpentry! It feels good when you can see the results of your labor, specially if you can use it (I have some experience under my belt).
My favorite sports are soccer, ping pong (if I have a good opponent, I can go on playing for hours) and beach volleyball. However, my favorite sports to watch are soccer and hockey (sorry my Bostonian friends, I’m a Habs fan 😎 ).
Some of my favorite books: (to name a few):
“Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, “The emperor of all maladies, the biography of cancer” by Siddhartha Mukherjee, “Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter” by Carmen Aguirre, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” by Trevor Noah.
Some of my favorite movies (again just to name a few):
“Lives of others“, “The Truman Show“, “Modigliani“, “Cast Away“, “The Shawshank Redemption“, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest“, “Forrest Gump“, “Saving Private Ryan“, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind“, “Ben-Hur“, “The Fountain”, and of course “Cinema Paradiso” (the list can go on).
You usually find me with my headphones on! I enjoy listening to Indie rock and alternative rock music. I also have a tooth for classical music and jazz. This last one is mostly when I want to work but not too hard! My favorite bands are “1- Pink floyd, 2- Radiohead 3-British sea power, 5- Black lab” and recently have been enjoying Neil Halstead, Gem Club. I love country music but it has its own moments for me. Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson are no brainer!
When I was 2 years old!
My biggest passion after science? Animation movies! Want to make me happy? Invite me to an animation movie! I cannot list those I loved since it will become a very long list! But my all time favorites are the Maestro Miyazaki’s works!
I usually keep myself busy doing research, reading (mostly online), listening to audiobooks, programming, and watching comedy TV shows (I cannot stand drama TV series unless they are really good). My all time favorite shows are: Family guy, Simpsons, South park, Rick and Morty, Seinfeld, Friends, Final Space, The Office, Midnight Gospel. Among drama series, I love Shameless (comedy drama), GOT, Mad Men, House MD, Gotham, House of Cards. I would also enjoy a good documentary (specially historic ones)!
I also like doodling, doing some computer graphics, taking photos and spending quality times with people who I like their company! Even though I am a social person in general and love people’s company, I usually find some time for myself to reflect and organize my thoughts. Usually this happens over the weekends at a cafe.
I started learning French when I moved to Montreal but stopped it after a couple of years. I studied German when I was 6 years old (My father was my teacher) until 12-13 but have lost most of it since I haven’t been using it. I lived in lovely Montreal for almost 13 years before moving to Boston (Cambridge). I moved to Guelph, ON in 2013 for seven months for a postdoctoral positions in next generation sequencing lab. However, I quit that position after 7 months and moved back to Montreal to start another postdoc in a field and place closer to my heart at McGill university, department of human genetics (Genome Quebec innovation center).
I cannot express in words how passionate I am about working in Cancer (epi)genomics field and more specifically children’s cancer and even more specifically children’s brain tumors.
Speaking of things I am passionate about, I have two cats: Maxine (F, 5y, top right corner) and Dadashi (M 3y, bottom left corner).