It was cold and chilly on November 24, 2015, and temperatures had already started to drop, giving a sense of the arrival of winter in Kashmir in India, a beautiful valley in the foothills of the mighty Himalayas. I was travelling to another region of the state—Jammu—where winters are relatively warm compared to my home in Kashmir. I had to appear for an interview for the position of Research Fellow at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, which was my first professional introduction to the world of science.

As I was travelling from Kashmir, I was dressed in warm woolen clothes, but as soon as I entered the suburbs of Jammu, which I mentioned was relatively warm, I immediately started feeling the warmth of Jammu weather. I arrived at the interview venue early in the morning, and after waiting for some time, I entered the interview board room. Even before I took my seat, one of the professors on the interview panel started asking me, “Hey Umar, you are wearing warm and woolen clothes, but you are in Jammu. Can you explain to me why?” I immediately responded that I have come all the way from Kashmir where the winters are very cold, that is why I am wearing these clothes. He then again asked “what is it that makes us adjust to the environment we live in?” to which I replied that “it is basically the process of cellular homeostasis that makes us respond and adjust to changes in the environment we live in”.

Dr. Sheikh's fellowship is under the supervision of Dr. Hao Chang, Department of Dermatology in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.