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Amir Ashoorzadeh has come a long way since he was working as a cook and dreaming of a better life after leaving war-ravaged Iran.
Now the 40-year-old spends his days developing drugs to fight cancer.
And on Monday he made history by becoming the first student of Auckland University's bridging programme to graduate with a PhD.
The university's autumn graduation ceremonies start today and run until Friday next week, involving almost 6000 students.
Dr Ashoorzadeh was conscripted into the armed forces when he left school during the Iran-Iraq War.
After the conflict ended he moved to New Zealand in search of a more peaceful life and took a job cooking the food of his homeland at an Auckland restaurant.
"[Cooking] was a job available at that time - I wanted always to go to university," he said.
Although he was good at maths and chemistry, his limited English held him back.
He had been out of school for almost a decade when he enrolled in 1994 in the one-year bridging course.
Known as the Tertiary Foundation Certificate, it aims to pave the way to university for mature students and people who didn't get University Entrance at school. Some of the participants have not passed Year 11 qualifications.
Certificate deputy co-ordinator Moira Statham said she remembered Dr Ashoorzadeh starting as a shy, hard-working student.
"He wouldn't have stood out as a hugely high flyer to begin with," she said. "But I think he's one of these people who keeps on going, they don't get deterred. He just got better and better as he went along."
Dr Ashoorzadeh completed bachelor and masters degrees in science, then spent five years doing his doctorate in chemistry, for which he made a lower-cost synthetic version of a naturally occurring anti-malaria drug.
His job as a research fellow at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre involves similar work using chemistry to develop anti-cancer drugs, a role he enjoys for its potential to help sick people.
Science also proved to be a catalyst for love. Dr Ashoorzadeh's partner, Sandra Bauer, has a PhD in polymer science.
