Career Day

To aid graduate students and postdocs in planning their future vocational pursuits, a Career Day jointly sponsored by Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, College of Natural Science, Genetics, The Graduate School, and Microbiology was held in the spring of 2001 and 2005. Information was presented on career planning, statistics of PhD graduates in various career field, and guest speakers from various areas gave short summaries of their own career paths and their current vocational activities. It is anticipated that Career Day will be held every third year.

Career Day 2005
May 14, 2005
Graduate Bio-Sciences Career Options Conference

Sessions with presentations about alternative career planning, working in industry, and preparing for academic positions were held, with a variety of speakers:

• Administration/Scientific Publication - Crispin Taylor, American Society of Plant Biologists
• Trauma Surgical Consulting - Brian Coates, Kevin Odle & Associates, Coates Orthopedics
• Management Consulting - Dong Wei, Deloitte Consulting, LLP
• Patent Law - Alice Bonnen, Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec
• Government Services - Belinda Hawkins, Environmental Protection Agency
• Big Pharma: Patrick Lukulay, Pfizer Corporation (>115,000 employees)
• Small Biotech: Colleen Toole, Cayman Chemical, (100 employees)
• Research Institutions: Rob Britton and Frank Ewers, MSU
• Teaching: Gwen Pearson

Belinda Hawkins from the Environmental Protection Agency speaks on career paths in government services.

Alice Bonnen from Myers Bigel Sibley & Sajovec talks about alternative careers in patent law.

Dong Wei of Deloitte Consulting, Alice Bonnen of Myers Bigel Sibley and Sajovec, Belinda Hawkins of the Environmental Protection Agency and Crispin Taylor of the American Society of Plant Biologists participated in the Career Day sessions as speakers.