Chemistry major

Chemist, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, Pa.

Highlight quote

"One Hendrix professor once told me that it more important to be well educated than well trained. These are words I took to heart, and I think they are true more in today's world than ever before."

Current projects

I am working as a chemist in early stage drug development in the immuno-inflammation therapeutic area. My current project is targeting a once-a-day oral drug for small population autoimmune diseases such as Blau Syndrome. My role involves choosing and resourcing chemical targets based on biological data and working with biologists and pharmacokineticists to determine the ability to develop of these chemical targets into drugs.

Undergraduate Research

While at Hendrix, I worked for two summers with Dr. David Hales studying the ion-molecule chemistry of BF3 clusters in a time of flight mass spectrometer. I also worked one trimester with Dr. Tom Goodwin on the total synthesis of radiolabelled Salmeterol.

How Hendrix prepared me for success

I think my time at Hendrix taught me how to think outside of the box. I think this is true not just in the science classes I took, but maybe even more so in my humanities classes. In my current position, it's sometimes necessary to come up with creative solutions to problems encountered in the drug development process as our knowledge of biological processes and scientific technologies used to study these processes is constantly evolving.

My advice

One Hendrix professor once told me that it more important to be well educated than well trained. These are words I took to heart, and I think they are true more in today's world than ever before. Being well trained might be enough to get you a job, but being able to bring a wealth of knowledge and new ways of thinking to that job and will make you indispensible.