Hi, I’m Eshim Shahid. I’m one of the two Capice PhD students at VU Amsterdam and started in August, 2017. I was born in Pakistan and moved to the UK as an adolescent so I’ve experienced education in both Eastern and Western settings. I studied psychology at Royal Holloway and did my Master’s in psychiatric research at King’s College London. I consistently juggled with the idea of clinical work versus research throughout my education but ultimately decided that I was most interested in understanding how and why psychiatric problems develop. 

Still, the field of psychiatric research is quite broad and it wasn’t until halfway through my Master’s degree that I was finally introduced to psychiatric genetics, Manhattan plots and the mysterious case of the missing heritability.

I was drawn to the Capice project because it uses a genetic approach that also considers the role of the environment, to understand the development of early mental health problems in children and adolescents. Coming from a psychology background, the first few months of my PhD have focused heavily on learning all about behavioural genetics and methods of analyses. In my project, I will be focusing on the etiology of internalizing problems in children and adolescents, by looking at common genetic variants and how they interplay with other risk factors.
6 months in, Amsterdam is treating me very well. I am settling in and find my work to be both intellectually stimulating and challenging. One of the things I enjoy the most is being in an open and collaborative setting with access to very talented minds who are always keen to help. Aside from a great working environment, my new colleagues have made Wonu and I feel very welcome and introduced us to all sorts of Dutch customs, food, TV, and culture.
I’ve already picked up a couple of Dutch idiosyncrasies. This time last year, I didn’t know how to cycle which is a pretty essential life skill here in the Netherlands. Within a couple of weeks of moving to Amsterdam, I became the proud owner of my first bike, called Rosalind, and use it as my main mode of transport now. Also, having lived in London for a number of years and being accustomed to British social norms, Dutch friendliness took me by surprise. I now find myself smiling at strangers and greeting them in elevators; a habit I must remember to quickly lose when I go back to London.