Andrew Nakhla helps the team at SMS with administration, and data management and analysis. He was recruited to SMS in August and his role is constantly evolving.

“He clearly had the right experience,” says Katharina Gaus, head of SMS, when asked why Andrew was the right choice for the job, “his personality and broad interests were a good match for the young EMBL Australia node” 

But how does someone who studied Finance Law and managed hedge funds end up at SMS? Andrew says he has never been one for rigid structure and routine. Once he realised that being a trader wasn’t what he wanted, he studied physics to get his bachelors degree—doing mathematical modelling of public health data on the side incidentally.

To pursue his passion for physics, he is getting his Masters in Medical Physics.

For Andrew, these new career directions are the result of sampling different fields and learning from their outcomes, not unlike our approach to scientific experiments really. Not a bad strategy for career development. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull suggested that even politicians should use a “scientific method” for policy making, when he spoke at the award ceremony for the PM's Prize for Science recently.

The multidisciplinary environment at SMS, the awesome technology and dynamic research groups will complement Andrew’s studies and provide opportunities to further cultivate his love for physics.