Arun Geetha Viswanathan
He/Him
I am gay and I am a cancer biologist.//
I am a PhD candidate at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) at Trivandrum, Kerala, India. I am a part of the cancer research program at the Centre and I joined there last February (2020). I am currently working on cancer immunology. I always walk on eggshells at a new place and don’t talk to people much because I never know what kind of environment I am at. The constant worrying of acceptance by the colleagues and batchmates worries me. I even think that they might reject me when they know about my sexual orientation. Since coming out at home and in public I have gone through a series of depression episodes. After almost four years of teaching at a private college at my district, I finally decided to join PhD at RGCB. I still don’t know how everything will turn out to be. I still don’t know whether my guide and batchmates accept me as who I am. That when I decided to Google ‘Queer scientists’ and to my surprise, the site came as a result. I am happy that this group exist and it’s mere existence alone makes me feel fine. I don’t know whether its a closely-knit group; even if it’s not I would be happy knowing that there are people like me in and around the world achieving things in academics and research.
Feel free to contact me on anything you need to ask regarding the field or queer subjects.