iJOBS Event Summary

ACA Lunch and Learn Event This post was written following the ACA Lunch and Learn Event, Opportunities in Drug Development, on July 13 with Sam Kongsamut, PhD. On July 13^th, Rutgers Newark ACA graciously hosted Sam Kongsamut, PhD, a scientist and entrepreneur, regarding his career path in drug development. Dr. Kongamut is a tall, soft spoken, knowledgeable man with a wealth of experience ranging from academia to industry to biotech start-ups. He began his studies at the University of Chicago and received his doctorate in Neuropharmacology.

This piece was written after attending an iJOBS workshop entitled: How to Get and Keep a Job presented by Nancy Mark from Johnson & Johnson on June 29th, 2017 in Piscataway, NJ. As graduate students and post docs, we work in a semi-professional environment, wearing the uniforms of bright t-shirts, coffee stained jeans, and disintegrating shoes. Transitioning from this scholarly environment to one that requires tailored clothes and dry cleaning can be daunting, requiring more than just a simple trip to Nordstrom’s.

iJOBS hosted a career panel, on May 22, 2017, in hopes of enlightening students about career opportunities in education and science outreach. The panelists included: Lucille O’Reilly Ph.D. (Science Teacher), Tiffany King, Ph.D. (BioBus), Patricia Irizarry, Ph.D. (The Rutgers Science Explorer Bus), Paul Winslow Ph.D. (Students 2 Science) and Kara Mann, MS. (Liberty Science Center). Many of us are a source of inspiration to the children and young adults in our lives.

This piece was written after attending an iJOBS workshop entitled: An Introduction to Good Laboratory Practices presented by Melissa Elliott from Envigo on May 8th, 2017 in Piscataway, NJ. Good laboratory practices (GLPs) are a series of regulations which standardize the quality of research used in clinical trials, or food development. Before human consumption, or treatment, there are several stages of research: exploratory, preclinical development, clinical trial, and manufacturing. The latter three stages are all federally regulated.

This past February, nearly fifty graduate students and post-docs braved the winter weather and attended a four day long workshop called SciPhD to learn how to frame skills gained in academia to be marketable towards careers in industry.

On November 29, the New Brunswick site of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) hosted students from Rutgers University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland. BMS is a global bio-pharmaceutical company whose drug portfolio includes oncology, immunoscience, cardiovascular, genetic diseases, and fibrotic diseases.

 By: Eileen Oni This past September, members of the Rutgers community gathered at the Eagleton Institute Science and Politics workshop to hear words of wisdom and personal stories during a question and answer session with the Honorable Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey Governor. This session was moderated by the Associate Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, John Weingart.

By: Itzamarie Chevere-Torres “Good writing is good writing; it doesn’t matter if it is an email”  Danielle Heuer, co-founder of Every Voice Educates and Communication Consultant and Coach for WD Communications, said as she started the presentation on Science Business Writing Workshop. The key to effective writing is to know your reader and to write just the necessary information using short sentences and everyday words.

Last month, iJOBS held a case study in Pharma Market Research. This case study was coordinated by Return on Focus, a company that uses evidence-based marketing to provide new marketing strategies for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Return on Focus was started in 2006 by Dan Reinhardt, who received his BS and MBA in Marketing. Evidence-based marketing is a type of marketing that uses research, statistics, and trends to integrate evidence with strategic expertise.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) held an informational meeting at Rutgers University on October 10^th. This meeting allowed students and postdocs to learn about career opportunities in industry and network with AAPS members working in the area.