Andrii Gryganskyi: from There to Here...
The second week of the Howard Hughes Program I really got to know my mentor, Andrii Gryganskyi, better.
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Not only did I find out that his awesome accent comes from Ukraine, but I also learned about many other thing that influenced his decisions in life that arrived him in his current position, a postdoc in the mycology field. He also now has a family with two young children. The story of how he arrived to this point shows his determination and perseverance.
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Ever since he was a child he was always into plants and biology. He was fascinated with plants and fungi since he was a child. However when it came time to choose what path he wanted to take in life he was restricted by the few professions that were acceptable in Ukraine at that time. He seemed like he would probably be a hunter – that is a far stretch from what he is now! After graduating high school he went to Kyiv State University in Ukraine. This was no small accomplishment as he was the first person to attend a university in his family. It was during his college schooling that he took a mycology class and found out what he wanted to do in his career.
During his professional career Andrii enjoyed what he does immensely. His favourite topic of mycology is the phylogeny and evolution of fungus. He also enjoys the cultivation of mushrooms, which encompasses a lot of his field work! Some of the thing that he finds harder is the molecular biology part of his job. Since he started on this topic later than most people now coming into this field, and since it is now such a big part of mycology, he finds it a little more challenging and gets frustrated when it is not successful. However, he said it is a fundamental topic for most mycologist and biologists. He also said that in addition to molecular biology a good understanding of bioinformatics and computational knowledge can be a big help.
When I asked Andrii to sum up what he did he told me that he is “trying to build a natural system of part of the fungal kingdom by using molecular data.” What he enjoys most from his job is the constant challenge to discover something new that can make a difference in his field. I also asked Andrii whether he ever thought of an alternate career. He said that he would have liked to pursue biological medicine, such as neuroscience, or genomic research focusing on human diseases such as HIV (which actually have had cases where because of the immunodeficiency allows a fungus that usually don’t grow on human to proliferate on them particularly their tongue). Speaking of the immune system, I asked Andrii what the most dangerous part of the job is, and he said its not something big like exposure to radiation which causes him harm, but little things like fungal cultures, which can expose him to dangerous fungus and since the since the immune system is not 100% safe-proof chemicals that he works with can also be hazardous if not handled properly.
So basically Andrii has had a very interesting life and enjoys what he does thoroughly. Sorry to say I don’t have more any pictures with Andrii wearing cool t-shirt to put up, but if any come up ill be sure to!
