An Engineer finding her own way

  • 08 September 2022

“Ich bin ein Weltmensch – I’m a citizen of the world, so I have no boundaries.”

Saba Shirvani (Clinical Neuroscience 2019) is a Gonville & Caius College postgraduate student. She calls Austria home, is of Iranian descent, and has studied in the United States and in the United Kingdom. She is also an active Caian, having held the position of MCR President in 2021 as the College negotiated a safe return to normality during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Saba is in the final year of a PhD funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020. She is a member of the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, developing body imaging methodologies for ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). She is a member of the 7 Tesla Physics group under the supervision of Professor Chris Rodgers, working on trans-European projects to track the early response to chemotherapy in patients with liver metastases.

She lives by the phrase “Ich bin ein Weltmensch” in both her professional and personal life, while forging her own path. She also has advice for others embarking on their own PhDs.

“Every PhD goes through an existential crisis, but once you get through it you can think ‘it’s all coming together’. I know there’s no journal of negative findings, but any finding is progress!” she says.

Here you can see the difference my work can make. It keeps me motivated as the results are tangible and visible quickly

Saba’s focus is on the engineering side of a new generation of 7-Tesla scanners, developed by Siemens, trying to fit the technology into a clinical space.

“When you’re an engineer, you’re often focusing on the maths or software angle, but here you can see the difference my work can make. That’s very encouraging and it keeps me motivated as the results are tangible and visible quickly,” she adds.

“The scanner’s potential is very high. The appeal of ultra-high field scanners is clear: the stronger the magnetic field, the greater image resolution can be pushed. It is a great alternative to conventional imaging methods and holds great promises for the  future of healthcare.”

Saba is realising her own potential, having left home in Austria for her undergraduate degree and work at Harvard Medical School in the US, before attending Imperial College London and moving to the University of Cambridge and Caius.

She is a reluctant trailblazer, given it is 2022 and “women in engineering are highly underrepresented,” Saba says.

“In graduate programmes there’s been a lot of change and universities have tried hard to make positive changes which we can see. The challenging part probably remains in the working world,” she says.

“You have to be a tough cookie and you might feel like you’re on your own, but try to cultivate a support system and a network of good mentors along the way and, in turn, share your knowledge and become the support system for someone else...”

Saba was raised as a bilingual German-Farsi speaker and is looking forward to returning to Iran to visit family following a Covid-enforced hiatus.

She describes herself as a typical Viennese girl, enjoying the alternative and historical culture in the traditional Austrian capital. Her Iranian heritage intrigues acquaintances and people are interested as Iranian students are not often represented due to the international sanctions.

“Iran is a beautiful country. People realise the deep-rooted history, the thousands of years of cultural and academic history… they want to know more,” she adds.

 

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