Here is an opportunity to learn about different career options and to connect with a wonderful alumna from our department!

CALC|UM is pleased to host Asako Kubota to speak at our upcoming seminar on September 29th (Friday). Asako received her PhD in chemistry in 2012 (Sanford Group), and she is currently practicing as a patent advisor at Cooley. (check out her profile here. In this seminar, Asako will share with us her experience transitioning from working as a chemist at a chemical company to being a patent specialist at a law firm.

Come join us for lunch and a discussion led by the speaker at 12pm in CHEM 1200. Please RSVP here.

On Friday (9/22) at noon in room 1706, CALC|UM will be hosting our second career panel of the year. Our panelists include:

Kathryn Hughes, Staff Fellow at the FDA
Matthew Clarke, Conservation Scientist at the Smithsonian
Elizabeth Rhoades, Research Scientist at Diageo (world’s largest producer of spirits and a key producer of beer)

If you are interested in hearing what it is like to work in science policy, art conservation, or the alcoholic beverages industry, this is the panel for you. RSVP at this link. Lunch will be provided.

Ryan Dodson, host

Careers Beyond the Bench

Pursuing non-traditional career paths is becoming more and more common in chemical sciences as new data analysis and computer programming skills are becoming an important component of many fields of chemistry.

On September 15, 2017, CALC|UM held a panel discussion, with Karunesh Arora from Ford Company, Shreya Bhattarai from Google, and Sean Law from TDAmeritrade, to introduce data science and software engineer careers to chemistry graduate students and post-docs.

The townhall style panel discussion led to very interesting topics on venturing into industry jobs after PhD. The panelists discussed the challenges for transitioning from an academic work environment to industry setting. Learning new sets of skills and being able to work in a collaborative work environment seemed to facilitate such transition. For example, all three panelists are currently working on projects that are far from what they pursued during their graduate careers. However, they seem to agree that during the graduate career they gain skill sets that help them learn new things required for the job in an effective manner. In terms of collaboration, they definitely emphasized the need of networking within the company in order to succeed. Most of the times that might mean setting up lunch program with colleagues and discussing projects and ideas. Furthermore, upon asking what could we do to prepare ourselves to get our feet into data science and software engineer career pathways, all the panelists shared some vital information that is worth sharing. Data science and programming courses on online platforms such as coursera, Edex from MIT, CS50 from Harvard, etc are helpful in learning as well as putting them on the resume. HackerRank seemed to be very important with these type of jobs as many software companies ask whiteboard type problem solving questions during the interview process. Furthermore, there is an online test from HackerRank that upon completion your score can be sent to different companies for review. However, these tests and online courses are meant to expose to various aspects of programming and data analytics. The most important task is to actually apply the learnt skills to an application of your own. Lastly, these panelists emphasized that the research aspect of academics is still present in industry for data science and software engineer careers, especially with the field growing at a fast pace. Overall, the panel highlighted that with the training we go through during our graduate career it seems that careers in data analytics and software engineer are definitely good alternative paths from academia for chemistry graduate students and post docs.

On Thursday September 21, 2017 at noon in Chemistry 1706, Cory Valente from Dow Chemical will be giving a seminar on Careers in Industry.

Cory is the R&D Leader for Dow’s Strategic Recruiting and Research Assignments Program, as well as the Global Network Leader for GLAD, Dow’s Diversity & Inclusion network for LGBT and ally employees. He will be discussing the specifics about careers and research at Dow, as well as careers in industry in general.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP at this link.
Lunch will be provided.

Thanks!

Ryan Dodson, host

Note: in addition to the noon Careers in Industry seminar, he will also be talking about Diversity and Inclusion at Dow in Chemistry 1640 at 4pm. You are welcome to attend one or both talks. This RSVP link is only to gauge expected attendance at the noon event.

On behalf of CALC|UM, we would like to invite you to “Careers Beyond the Bench”. Our panelists are Karunesh Arora, a data scientist at Ford, Sean Law, a data analyst at TD Ameritrade, and Shreya Bhattarai, a software engineer at Google. They will share their experiences in pursuing non-academic career paths in software and data science areas.

The panel will be held on Friday, September 15, from noon-1 in room 1300 with an open Q&A from 1-2 in room A505. There are also limited time slots at which you could schedule individual meetings with our panelists. If you are interested in attending the event and scheduling individual meetings, please register at the link below.

Lunch will be provided. Sign up here.

Careers Beyond the Bench
When: Friday, September 15
Time: 12-1 pm
Where: CHEM 1300

Regards,
Co-hosts – Sugyan Dixit and Mina Jafari

The Chemistry Graduate Student Professional Development Organizations, CSIE|UM (Chemical Science at the Interface of Education at UM) and CALC|UM (Chemistry Aligned with Life and Career at UM), hosted the 3^rd Annual Alumni Reception on Thursday, August 3rd from 12 noon to 6 pm, in advance of the Karle Symposium the following day.

The day began with an Alumni Panel from 12-1:30pm on the broad topic of “How Michigan Prepared You for the Future.” The panelists including Zachary Buchan – Research Chemist at Dow AgroScience, Betsy Brown-Tseng – Research Chemist at PPG, Sethu Pitchiaya – Research Investigator at UM Department of Pathology, and Beth Kubitskey – Associate Dean at EMU. The event drew more than 60 graduate students eager to ask questions of the alumni about their experiences and expertise. In response to how UM uniquely prepared them for their careers today, panelists discussed benefitting from the department’s state of the art research opportunities, the help from office and support staff, the collaborative environment, and the opportunities for outreach and presentation.

Then, from 2-4pm, a Mock Speed Interviewing Session was conducted for senior graduate students to interact with alumni in both academic and industrial jobs. The event allowed graduate students to get experience and feedback on their job interviewing skills from alumni, some of whom are the industrial recruiters they will be meeting with later in the semester. Alumni from academic positions at EMU and UM participated along with alumni from industrial positions at BMS, Merck, Dow, and PPG.

The Alumni Reception began at 4 pm in the Radical Room of the Chemistry building. Light hors d’oeuvres, delicious desserts, and various refreshments were provided to welcome the alumni to a reception to mix, mingle, and network with former lab members, advisors, and current graduate students. The alumni, graduate students, and professors involved had a wonderful time catching up and telling stories.

Preparation for the 4^th Annual Alumni Reception are underway.

August 3, 2017 – 3rd Annual Alumni Reception

A combined CSIE|UM and CALC|UM event will precede the Karle Symposium and will feature guests who are departmental alumni.

Panel 12:00-1:30 (includes lunch)
UM Alumni on How Michigan Prepared Them for the Future
Rm 1706 CHEM

Zachary Buchan – Research Chemist at Dow AgroScience
Betsy Brown-Tseng        – Research Chemist at PPG
Sethu Pitchiaya – Research Investigator at UM Department of Pathology
Beth Kubitskey – Associate Dean at EMU

Speed Interviewing Sessions
2-3 and 3-4 PM

Beth Kubitskey – EMU
Nicholas Babij – Dow
Mike Hay – BMS
Sethu Pitchiaya – UM
Jacqueline Hicks – Merck
Se Ryeon Lee – PPG
Betsy Brown-Tseng -PPG

Sign-up here for the lunch session and here for the interviewing session.

Friday, June 9, 2017: Research science in industry, and translating products from the lab to production

Dr. Frank Reinhold (research management)
Dr. Suzanne Dakin (Chemical Engineering)
Dr. Melissa Lamson (Professional Development)

On June 9th, three BASF employees spoke to an audience of roughly 60 UM Chemistry graduate students and post-doctoral scholars. Dr. Frank Reinhold (research manager, Amphiphilic Systems Research North America) described the life of a research scientist at BASF, and its many differences from academic research. Dr. Suzanne Dakin (Chemical Engineer, Research Engineering Services) presented on the process of translating reactions from research labs to pilot plants, with an emphasis on the safety and environmental challenges associated with such scale-ups. Dr. Melissa Lamson (Ph.D. PDP) discussed the BASF Professional Development Program, which allows recent PhD graduates to explore different jobs at the company by taking part in several rotations across the country. This panel will be followed up with a site visit in the fall, date TBA.

Seminar: Research science in industry, and translating products from the lab to production

Frank Reinhold, Research Manager at BASF

Dr. Reinhold has worked at BASF for 11 years, where he has acted as a laboratory team leader, a senior product development scientist, and (currently) a technical research manager for Amphiphilic Systems in North America. He will be discussing how research scientists work at BASF, and how products move from lab into production. For those interested, there will be an opportunity to visit BASF later this year. If you are interested in working in industry and/or visiting BASF, this talk is for you.

CHEM 1706
Friday, June 9
Noon

Lunch will be served
RSVP: https://goo.gl/forms/qXDYf3Co8fXDOCDt1

 Dr. Grace Winschel, who graduated University of Michigan in 2015, came to Ann Arbor to share her experience starting a career in patent law. After receiving her Ph.D. in Chemistry (under the guidance of Dr. Pavel Nagorny), Grace moved to Seattle, Washington to serve as a scientific advisor at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Passing the Patent Bar in 2016, she became registered to practice in front of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As a Patent Agent, Grace primarily focuses on post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

In her talk, Grace discussed her transition from defending her dissertation to obtaining a career in patent law. In addition to providing insider intel on what life is like as a patent agent, she also identified different career and advancement options within the field, and tips to stand out as job candidate.