About

Hello World,

My name is Ismail and I am a scientist. I study early development using embryonic stem cells to help our understanding of a neurodegenerative disease.

I am also a bit of a runner. I have been running on and off since 2008 and more consistently since I moved to NYC in 2010. For some reason I am drawn to longer distances. In fact, my first race in 2009 was a marathon (Twin Cities). I didn't do well. Since then, I raced at almost every distance from 1 mile to half-marathon. In November 2011, I made the leap to ultramarathons by running The Knickerbocker 60K in Central Park. In 2012, I qualified for the NYC Marathon through the 9+1 program. That is my target race this year. After that, I hope to continue exploring the ultramarathon world with a 50-miler.

Most of my blog posts are about running. There might be a scientific article or two in there, if I see something interesting. I am also known to be a classic movie buff and a coding enthusiast (did you get the "Hello World" reference?). So, don't be surprised if I throw in a movie review or a weekend coding project. I will try to tag things accordingly.

This is it I guess. If there are no questions, see you on the blog.