Pardis Sabeti: A Scientific Genius & Rocker

on Tuesday, 01 February 2011.

By: Ramina Sotoudeh

Susan notes: This piece is one of several written by young women in grades nine and 12 at the American Academy for Girls in Dubai. The girls were assigned to write and submit a story, profile or attribute to AWR. Thanks to their English teacher Raheela Shaikh for coordinating the project, and to Ramina Sotoudeh for initiating it.

A science genius by day and a rock star by night, Pardis Sabeti represents the balance we should all have in our lives. She was born in 1975 in Iran but brought up in Florida and now lives in Massachusetts, United States.

Pardis is not only an Iranian woman who is the lead singer and bass player of a band, but she is also an evolutionary geneticist at Harvard University. Pardis developed a method of identifying parts of the genome that are related to natural selection.

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.

I personally admire how Pardis has balanced her hobby (being part of a band) and her career as a geneticist. I believe that every person should attend to his or her hobbies as much as Pardis does.

Because hobbies are just as important as jobs are. Hobbies or the activities a person enjoys should be his or her soul's careers. In her musical career, Sabeti has produced 3 albums which shows how serious she is about her rock band.

I also like how Pardis isn’t just another nerdy scientist at a university, spending most of her life in a lab and her body isn’t just a transportation tool to carry her brain around. Pardis has got multiple dimensions to her life. And no matter how busy she is; she says she enjoys it because she is doing what she loves.

Her research specifically regards the evolution of infectious diseases and how their effect on humans' genetic information. Because of her work and findings she was listed as one of the "Top 100 Living Geniuses" by London Daily Telegraph.

Pardis's scientific adventures began with her undergraduate degree in Massachusetts's Institute of Technology where she majored in biology and later she went on to continue her studies in University of Oxford where she specialized in genetic diversity.

“If you do you what you love, things happen fast. And I think that, that I don’t manage my time well, I don’t think I do anything special. It’s just, I stick around things that I love."
Pardis Sabeti