BAEC was mainly established to do research on nuclear energy and use the outcome for peaceful purposes of the nation such as power generation, agriculture, medical sectors and so on. As usage of electronics is everywhere, Institute of Electronics (IE) was established to support different nuclear facilities and laboratories, develop nuclear instrument and research and development on nuclear electronics. Later the activities of BAEC have been broadened and thus the activities of IE were not limited on the activities described earlier. Anyway, since the joining at BAEC back 2009, I am working as a scientist at IE. My Ph.D. thesis was on Acoustic Metamaterials. Till now, I am continuing research on this field.

I was initially preparing for higher study in USA. In the meantime, my colleague and elder brother, Md. Nasrul Haque Mia introduced me to UST. So we both applied at the same time but unfortunately, only I got accepted at the end. At the time of the application, I mentioned the KIMM campus and the supervisor’s name by expressing my interests to do research on metamaterials. Through the UST screening process, I finally got selected. Back in the year of 2015, Spring Semester, I first arrived in Korea for the integrative (M.S. + Ph.D.) study at UST, and so began my 5 years at KIMM.

To be honest, initially it was not that great at the beginning. For my first two years in Korea, I stressed myself out. I wanted to learn as many things as possible without acclimating with new environment, working system and course-work which in turn affected the work and time balance. It was also stemmed from a pre-misconception that Korean life is hard-life where hard work is an imperative part. But it should be referred here that there was no such work or pressure at our lab which was beyond my limit or which may cause imbalance between work and life. However, later, eventually, I learned how to balance between them.

When I started to adapt and socialize to local and foreign people, life became smooth and enjoyable. I used to travel a lot and tried to participate programs organized by KIMM, UST and Bangladeshi Community – even learned how to swing dance! Day by day, I discovered Korea and beauty of it: both natural and cultural. I have visited lot of places while I was in Korea, including Jejudo, Sinsido, etc. Among them, one memorable journey was Ullengdo-Dokdo trip by ship. I experienced the high tide and sea sickness for first time during the journey. I was amazed by the beauty of Ullengdo. It was a good journey to commemorate for life time.

Till now, I love to reminisce those memories. Cherry blossom and colorful changes to nature on different seasons was so adorable to me that still I recollect them. As being from a riverine country, I loved to watch Fishes swimming around the river and stream.

There are lots of things I liked about KIMM, such as dormitory, football ground, cafeteria, deer suddenly appearing, plethora of white-color during cherry blossom, colorful trees before winter and all. But the camaraderie I found here which was beyond any political boarder line is unforgettable to me. I also liked different programs organized by KIMM such as sports day, hiking day, KIMM’s international researchers meeting etc. Once, I also won a lottery on a KIMM hiking day which amused me a lot.

The most memorable moment is being interviewed by the reporters of YTN TV channel in Korea. As I told earlier, the first two years in Korea was a bit stressful, and I decided to quit. But, my compassionate and sagacious supervisor, Dr. Hur immediately realized the situation and made a life changing decision. He suggested me to take some time off from work, take full rest and discard all the works for which I felt stressed.

I took his suggestion, rested for first couple days, but it quickly became boring. Since I was – and still am – in love with mathematics and solving equations, unheedingly, I started to solve one of the most famous transmission equations of my field which once seemed to be impregnable.

Within next few days, I cracked it which leads to boost-up my understanding, to realize the physical phenomena regarding the acoustic transmission through the holey structured metamaterials!!! After that I didn’t have to look-back and got the impetus needed to move forward. Next, I published a paper regarding this, which was featured on TV News of YTN channel!

I always observed that the president of KIMM often had lunch at cafeteria and took the food by standing at the queue, just like everyone else. He used to dine with different group of researchers such a foreign student, local student, scientists of different laboratories. I assume those simple attitudes have great impact such as ensuring the quality of food, keeping discipline and exchanging ideas or being informed about any issue. Currently, I am acting as a Head of a small division at IE. So, I am trying to follow those gestures that I have observed at KIMM.

For foreign students/researchers, I strongly recommend KIMM for doing research or pursue the opportunity offered by the institute, as it provides amiable work environment and well-equipped laboratory set-up. Moreover, thesis or research work can be carried out under the supervision of learned and experienced professors/scientists!

Life of a researcher may become very difficult, if they fail to integrate themselves with the society and nature. Balancing life with work is very important. Always keep that in mind!