Mentors in science and math careers

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Wojeck on February 21, 2009 at 12:18pm

Hello! I seem to be the first entry. I work in Cellular and Molecular Biology for a Bio-Tech company that specializes in viral disease treatment and prevention. I work in a Screening Laboratory with another woman. We try to target specific cell functions using a Small Molecule Compound Library of 50,000 compounds. We check the cytotoxicity of the compounds that seem to work and then target the mechanisms of action. Our "successful" hits are sent on to drug manufacture assessments.

I attended GCC 1994-1997 for an AA in Women's Studies, Goddard College, VT 1997-2000 for a BA in Liberal Arts/Dance and Movement, and UMass Amherst 2004-2007 for a BS in Kinesiology. I've had a strange path to my current situation, but very rewarding. I started lab work being a subject in a UMass study of muscle hypertrophy in the Kinesiology Department, went on to working on a clinical study for that group that assessed muscle damage due to statin medications, and taking on an independent study project in Cell Culture of muscle tissue as well. From there I scored a lab technician position in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department where I set up a cell culture lab for one of the research groups and conducted cytotoxicity studies on drug delivery systems synthesized by that group's members. I love what I do and would love to talk to folks attempting to do something similar.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Walsh on February 21, 2009 at 12:53pm

Hello,

I work in polymer science and engineering at a middle sized company that develops and manufactures products based on fluoropolymer materials. I am a research and development scientist in new product and materials development. On a typical day I am primarily in the laboratory creating new polymer materials and composites, testing their properties and making prototypes of new and sometimes completely crazy product ideas. A good proportion of my job is communicating the results of our group's research to both technical and non-technical audiences within the enterprise. The environment I am in is a very exciting and rewarding place to work and I gained many of the skills I use daily in the GCC Engineering Science program.

I attended GCC from 1996-1999 and transferred to the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at Umass Amherst under the compact agreement. I earned a BSME in 2002 and then was accepted into the Polymer Science and Engineering Dept. at Umass as a graduate student. I defended my doctoral thesis on January 3rd 2007.

My educational path was a bit winding - when I started at GCC I had been a boatbuilder and house carpenter for about 10 years. I wanted college to get into designing and engineering boats. While studying at Umass I got interested in the science and physics of materials and my focus shifted. I am still a boat freak though. I'd be happy to talk to anybody considering careers in science and engineering. Or music or art... etc :)

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Seward on February 27, 2009 at 5:03pm

I have extensive experience as a manager and leader in High Tech industries. I have a been a recruiting manager for IBM and hired dozens of Engineers, Scientist and Programmers.

Andy

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