This blog post is written by Yuly Fuentes-Medel PhD, Propel Careers Intern

On Saturday, March 17th, 2012, the NanoWorcester group had their second annual NanoWorcester Symposium hosted by the Worcester Polytechnic institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA.

Since last year, the attendance doubled, and the attendees joined together to focus on their common scientific interest, nanotechnology. This symposium was organized to exchange ideas on nanoscience, nanotechnology and nanomedicine and to focus on creating new possibilities and cross collaborations in the New England area. Students had the opportunity to share their work not only by showing their scientific work in a open poster session, but also by sharing their ideas in an elevator-speech format that resulted into a great learning experience for them and for the people in the audience. Please look at the following link to look up the future leaders and finalist of the event. http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/Physics/AFM/2012.nanoworcester.summary.html

NanoWorcester is a group of faculty members within the Colleges of the Worcester Consortium (COWC) who share an interest in research related to nanotechnology. The goal of the group is to promote interactions and collaborations within the field of Nanotechnology. This year committee members are: Nancy Burnham (WPI-PH), Jianyu Liang (WPI-ME), Reema Zeineldin (MCPHS-Pharma), Alice Gardner (MCPHS-Pharma), Arshad Kudrolli (Clark-PH), Sergio Granados-Focil (Clark-CH), Robert Bellin (Holy Cross-BIO), Ananta Adhikari (Assumption-Natural Science)and Eihab Jaber (WSU-CH).

The day started with Dr. Nancy Burnham the leader of this year organizing committee and associate professor at the department of Physics at WPI. She welcomed everyone, encouraged students to ask questions and provided the logistics for the day. Then Dr. Jianyu Liang an assistant professor at the department of mechanical engineer at WPI introduced Dr. Selçuk I. Güçeri, Dean of Engineering at WPI. He welcomed everyone and thanked Dr. Burnham for taking the led on this initiative. He referred to the historical perspective of the field of nanotechnology and encouraged the group to reflect on what things can we do that we couldn't do before. Also, Dr. Karen Kashmanian Oates, Dean of Arts and Sciences also shared her enthusiasm and support for this initiative. She wished the best to students for choosing this exciting field as their future.

The morning program included a variety of different topics. Dr. Christopher Lambert, from the Bioengineering Institute at WPI started the session with his talk titled "Self-Assembled Monolayers as Chemical and Biological Sensors". The second topic was presented by Dr. Evelyn Kurt-Jones from UMass Medical Center. The title of her talk was "Size and Shape Matter: Studying the Immune Response to Synthetic Microparticles". She was followed by Dr. Gerard D'Souza, from MCPHS Boston, who presented "Organelle-Targeted Intracellular Delivery". All of this exciting science is being developed in the local laboratories of central Massachusetts. In addition, this year, the symposium had two invited speakers. Dr. Thomas Vogt, from the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at USC, share his new findings in this talk, "Imaging at the Nanoscale". His talk amazed the crowd with imaging data and analyses at the level of single atomic resolution. He was followed by Dr. Heinrich Hoerber, from the University of Bristol, UK. He presented his work titled "Molecular Motors and Force Microscopy". His findings and research lead to a model of the way motor proteins interact in the cellular environment. The afternoon was mastered by the talent of students who shared their ideas with the audience with enthusiasm and joy.

Congratulations to this inspiring group for enabling the students to dream and make science happen. Just like last year, this was an amazing opportunity to learn from the presenter's scientific ideas and enthusiasm. Their vision to foster the advancements of science within the central MA area is admirable.

This blog is part of a series of blogs that will be written by the Business Area Advisors for Propel Careers. These blogs will share insights into the life sciences industry and thoughts on career guidance. To learn more about the business area advisors of Propel, see link: http://www.propelcareers.com/index.cfm/about-us/advisors/

Just the other day I was asked by an biotech executive (non-scientific background), who I'll refer to as Rory, 'what makes a chemist good?'. I paused for a moment as I wanted to, a) think about what my answer will be, but also, b) convey the message so Rory would understand what I meant. After a slight pause, I asked Rory if the question was in regard to a synthetic chemist or a medicinal chemist, explaining that they are quite different fields, so 'what makes a chemist good' depends on the role. With a blank look on Rory's face, 'huh?' came out. So here was my blank slate, my opportunity, to teach someone who cares what it is that I do...and I failed to even mention science, read on.

What I told Rory is that a GOOD chemist comes in many fashions. However a GREAT chemist is something different, in my opinion. I may not be either, but I've seen (again, my opinion) both. What makes a synthetic chemist great are these attributes, in no particular order: opportunistic, curious, motivated as hell, willing to recognize mother nature wins every battle, analytical, smart, malleable, humble. What makes a medicinal chemist great are these attributes, in no particular order: opportunistic, curious, motivated as hell, willing to recognize mother nature wins every battle, analytical, smart, malleable, humble. Striking similarities for jobs that I told Rory were different!

As I reflected on this, funny I thought, I never mentioned chemistry. It is then clear that being a great chemist has nothing to do with knowing chemistry, right? Well, not exactly. Knowing chemistry gets one entrance into the candidacy of 'great chemist'. I know a lot of chemists – the ones that I think are 'great' versus the ones that are 'good' both have the chemistry (medicinal or organic) in spades: their chemistry foundation is intact. It's the qualities that I described to Rory that divides the line.

Why am I writing about this? We, as scientists, are taught to be extremely critical (not in a negative way) of scientific work, whether it is seminars, publications, colleagues' work, etc., and rightly so...it sharpens our analytical minds and improves our scientific depth. But in that process, we may lose sight of attributes that could make us great: the intangibles. I've blogged on the transition from academia to industry before and there are consistencies with these messages: filling the physical (lab) and mental (studies) toolbox can make one quite sufficient as a researcher, but that alone doesn't necessarily make one great.

Athletes may have the same challenge: being really good requires technical skill – becoming 'great' requires something different. Becoming a superstar athlete requires physical 'awe' typically; becoming a champion requires the things I mentioned above, often in combination with that physical awe. A champion athlete: takes advantage of the opponent's weaknesses, studies the game and learns from it, works his/her rear-end off, understands that raw talent (as cool as it is) isn't enough, digs into every detail of his/her work, thinks critically about how to be better, understands his/her own weaknesses, remains flexible to learn from mistakes, continually improves even the sharpest parts of his/her game, and has the humility to accept the final score. Opportunistic, curious, motivated as hell, willing to recognize mother nature wins every battle, analytical, smart, malleable, humble. The ones that have unprecedented physical skill may overcome the odds (LeBron James?), for the mortals it's the other stuff that creates greatness (insert your champion here, let's discuss).

Rory asked me to describe what makes a great chemist; what I described could perhaps be applicable across any profession. After a long pause, I ended my comments to Rory (about chemists) with a smile: 'having good hands doesn't hurt'...funny that the same can be said about athletes.

Tell me who your champion athlete is and let's discuss!

This blog is part of a series of blogs that will be written by the Business Area Advisors for Propel Careers. These blogs will share insights into the life sciences industry and thoughts on career guidance. To learn more about the business area advisors of Propel, see link: http://www.propelcareers.com/index.cfm/about-us/advisors/

When I was a senior graduate student, I helped review medical school admission letters. This was a profound experience for me, and will forever influence how I think about jobs and how I apply for them.

The first lesson came from one of the applicant interviewers who told me that in response to the inevitable "I want to be a doctor because I want to help people", he would ask "If you're so motivated, what have you done in the past 6 months to help someone?". In other words, if you have the time and energy – go do something. There is so much pressure on recent trainees to get a job, and so much advice available to help them know what to do. But without experience to know what needs doing and what one could do, it's daunting to attempt to answer such big questions. The school admissions letter lesson was: get in and get your hands dirty.

I noticed graduate students around me taking on small projects in order to learn a new technique, helping to organize meetings, or volunteering to review admission letters (see opening comment). For me, it was the only way to learn about the current state of the science-related industry, as well as other directions people have taken their own careers, to be able to think about the possibilities for mine. That was the first time I joined AWIS (association for women in science, , it is an association I continue to participate in, many years later in Boston. In fact, Boston could not be a better area to look for these opportunities. I've often said I could fill every day of the week with scientific talks and related events, around here. Propel and AWIS events, alone, offer such a wealth of events and opportunities to pick up the information students need to being their career planning.

Since I put in that plug for Propel and AWIS, I'll also put in a quick plug for networking. In fact, we should have a Propel blog focused on collecting examples of successful networking. My latest example came just a few days ago from a friend who will be attending a conference, and was setting up some meetings with groups she knew would also be there. When looking at an email declining a meeting, she realized the sender had been at a company she had worked with a few years ago. When she sent a follow up note to that effect, the connection had been made, and she got the contact she had been seeking.

Now getting back to my application letter experience, the second lesson came from the application letters, themselves. When I find myself in the position of the applicant, I remember what it was like to be the reviewer. It's not just about getting in, Think about what will Ido when I'm there? Why do I think I'll like it and be any good at it? How well do I understand the skills that are needed? Here's another place where people find themselves with a lack of information, but the resources are there. I mentioned AWIS and Propel. It turns out that scientific societies also do a great job of gathering data and commentary on employment. When I was a student, when I wanted to take a break from "serious" work, I would thumb through science industry newspapers such as Biomedical Engineering News and The Scientist. Through my "recreational" reading, I was astonished to discover that there was a demand for disease biology modeling, and I was on my way.

Carolyn Cho is a business area advisor for Propel Careers and currently is a Director at Merck focusing in the Systems Biology Area

At 8:30 AM on a cold Saturday morning, February 12th, 2011, the NanoWorcester group had their first annual NanoWorcester Symposium at the f Massachusetts Colleges of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Worcester, MA. Around 50 junior and senior faculty as well as students, joined together to focus on their common scientific interest, Nanotechnology. This symposium was organized to discuss advances in Nanotechnology which are changing the way scientific research happens and creating new possibilities and cross collaborations.

NanoWorcester is a group of faculty members within the Colleges of the Worcester Consortium (COWC) who share an interest in research related to nanotechnology . The goal of the group is to promote interactions and collaborations within the field of Nanotechnology.

The day started with Dr Reema Zeineldin, providing opening remarks. She challenged everyone to enhance interactions among colleagues and to start with fostering connections among everyone in attendance. These relationships are important to promoting the future of the field. Following Dr. Zeineldin, Michael J. Malloy, PharmD, Dean of the School of Pharmacy Worcester/Manchester and the Massachusetts Colleges of Pharmacy and Health Sciences , welcomed everyone. He thanked the scientists for their ideas and encouraged the group to translate their ideas into reality. The first talk was given by Dr. Davis Baird, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Clark University, Worcester, MA. The title of the talk was, From Laboratory to Society: Developing an Informed Approach to Nanoscale Science and Technology . He provided context around reliable and speculative ideas and how this translates into attempts to predict the future. He asked a provocative question of whether we should try to cure longevity? This made me think about the social role that we have as scientists and how our perspectives can change the world and what the impacts might be. The following program included a variety of different topics, all developed in the local laboratories of central Massachusetts. Nancy Burnham, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA discussed "Atomic Force Microscopy, the Eye and Hand of Nanotechnology". Robert Campbell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Worcester, MA, discussed "Exploiting Tumor Features for Therapeutic Gain using Cationic Nanotherapeutics". T. J. (Lakis) Mountziaris, Ph.D., Professor & Department Head, Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, discussed, "Direct Sensing of Biomolecular Interactions using ZnSe Quantum Dots". Sergio Granados-Focil, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Clark University, Worcester, MA, discussed " Ionic transport through polymeric matrices". Terri Camesano, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, discussed, "Probing Bacterial Adhesion at the Nanoscale".

Finally, the Keynote Speaker: Kevin O' Sullivan, President & Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiative, Worcester, MA discussed. Moving Nanotechnology from the Bench to the Marketplace. He encouraged scientists and business people to collaborate and have the scientists to focus on the science and the business specialists focus on the capital. He discussed the importance of incubators to foster technology. These incubators are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support, resources, and services, not the typical incubator that scientists think of, which is used to grow cells... Kevin enthusiastically shared his vision for commercialization of Massachusetts's academic and scientific research. He discussed the importance of working as a team and self awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses , to enhance an efficient entrepreneurial environment.

As a Graduate student in Biomedical Sciences It was reinforcing to see the recognition of the value of my ideas and that these ideas, if given the right environment, have the ability to lead to successful technology development and even a potential company. This day inspired me to think beyond my own research and explore opportunities to not just develop, but commercialize exciting ideas. I very much enjoyed , the quality of the science discussed and also the great environment and enthusiasm evident within the NanoGroup. Groups like this one, are fostering advancements within the Worcester area. There is a tremendous amount of energy and excitement with Biomedical Science in Massachusetts and I look forward to being a part of it!

Written by, Yuly Fuentes-Medel, Propel Careers Intern, PhD Candidate, Biomedical Science, UMass Medical School, Neurobiology Department