Forty hours of travel. That is the distance from home for Akash Deep Biswas, a 33-year-old Computational Chemist at Dompé’s Exscalate laboratory. For almost a year, Akash, who arrived in Italy in 2016, has been in Naples, but for him home always remains in Tezpur, a city of 60,000 inhabitants on the banks of the Brahmaputra River, which in India connects the snows of Tibet to the Bay of Bengal.

At high school, Akash already knew what he wanted to be when he grew up: a computational engineer. In India, places to enter public universities are extremely limited and the entrance exam requires years of study. The first two attempts were unsuccessful but Akash did not give up and decided to explore other paths.: "I found out that there were 14 places available in a course for Biosciences and Bioinformatics at Tezpur University in India and, determined not to miss this opportunity" - he explains - "I applied and, surpassing 10,000 other students, I won one of the 14 places". After his master's degree, he began working on research projects, such as the biomolecular simulation of metalloproteins or the development of a Matlab code for the crosslinking of a polymer in different locations, including the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology).

Fascinated by the work of Vincenzo Barone, professor of theoretical and computational chemistry at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, Akash discovered the existence of a scholarship for a doctorate in methods and models of molecular sciences at the same university. He applied and won, thus leaving for Italy, a country so far from his homeland.

However, his dream was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic: the young scientist found himself far from his family without the possibility of reaching them. He felt alone, like many people at that time, but he decided to turn this difficulty into an opportunity to help Italy, the country that had given him so many opportunities up to that point. He started a fundraising project to support the hospitals of Pisa and Florence, donating his entire month's salary to make a tangible contribution to the fight against the virus. His initiative inspired many people and raised 38,000 euros, distributed equally between the two hospitals.

But Akash did not stop there. He wanted to help and contribute even further to the fight against the virus that was killing thousands of people and, while reading online articles, he discovered Exscalate4Cov, the most advanced competence center in Europe aimed at fighting the coronavirus by combining the best resources of supercomputing and artificial intelligence coordinated by Dompé farmaceutici. "I immediately understood that that was what I wanted to do, it was my destiny" - explains Akash - "I studied all the online materials, followed all the social channels and wrote to all the people involved, including Andrea Beccari, Head of Discovery Platform Senior Director, Dompé and Carmine Talarico, Discovery Biology Senior Specialist, Dompé, to demonstrate my enthusiasm to want to be part of the Dompé project".

After six months, in March 2021, Akash finally had the opportunity to start his career as a research assistant with Professor Giulio Vistoli at the University of Milan at Exscalate, combining his passion for molecular science with the desire to contribute to research against COVID-19 and in September 2021 he completed his doctorate from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy.

His dedication, tenacity and love of science led him to become a full-time research assistant until March 2023, when he finally achieved his dream of working with Exscalate, becoming a Computational Chemist. Akash’s journey is a testament to how determination and passion can open the doors to unexpected opportunities.

To the question "What is your Reason Why?" Akash replies: "Failure. To succeed, you must not fail twice in the same way...it is by choosing different paths that we advance knowledge and arrive at a solution."