Most postdocs are plagued with the question: “Is academia the only option?”…

In an attempt to introduce non-academic career options to postdocs, the BPA is organizing a seminar series with executives and leaders from alternative career paths. This series will be a great opportunity for postdocs to learn more about a career in private industry and to network with research leaders from Bay Area companies and other like-minded postdocs.

The Industry seminar series was flagged off with a talk by Dr. Conan Li, General Manager and Vice President of Research and Development, HemoSense and Cholestech on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at the Berdahl Auditorium in Stanley Hall.

After graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Li received his PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University and MBA from Cornell University. Dr. Li has served on the advisory boards of Agilent Technologies, Roche Molecular Systems, Quest Diagnostics, Roche Molecular Diagnostics and Abbott Laboratories. Dr. Li previously held research leadership positions at Agilent Technologies (R&D Manager, Molecular Diagnostics), Vaxdesign Corporation (Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute (Director, Center for Advanced Genomic Technologies, Cellomics, Inc. (Vice President of Product Development), Xylum Corporation (Vice President of Science and Research) and Abbott Laboratories.

After an engaging talk covering various aspects of his journey from an academic postdoc to an industry manager, Dr. Li advised the audience of the diverse career paths that a postdoc could pursue, ranging from patent law to project management. He emphasized the importance of “doing what you enjoy the most”, no matter what future career direction one may choose. The seminar was followed by an intimate dinner on the top floor of Stanley Hall, with beautiful views of the Bay. Dr. Li, graciously answered questions and provided extremely helpful advice and suggestions.

Overall, this was a great opportunity for everyone to meet a senior research executive who has vast experience in multiple biotech companies. A list of our names and research interests together with contact information was given to Dr. Li to facilitate future communications. If anyone is interested in inviting more speakers for this seminar series, please e-mail Selva. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next industry seminar, coming up later in May to be given by Dr, Marc Better, Executive Director for Process development, Amgen, Freemont, CA.

Some testimonials from the audience at Dr. Li’s seminar:

"Your seminar series will be invaluable to your colleagues; I'm sure they're grateful for your effort in organizing this series." Conan Li, General Manager and Vice President of Research at Hemosense and Cholestech (Speaker).

"Very few postdocs will be getting the jobs they are directly trained for as professors in research universities. The only way to learn about other possibilities is to get the perspective of many different people in industry… I liked that our speaker was a very engaging speaker with experience in many different kinds of jobs we could do. I appreciated that he was given our contact and research information. The venue for the dinner was perfectly fancy and intimate."  - Violet Votin

"An [important] part of these events is that it [makes] our postdocs to keep thinking about future, and accordingly gear ourselves for it." - Qiming Sun

“As a postdoc, there is a lack of knowledge in understanding how research takes place in the industry: it is a different ball game even though the science is the same. These talks and discussions are very important, especially for people like me who are more and more leaning toward industry. Thank you so much for all the hard work. I hope to see more of these talks. The dinner was a good place for us to ask many questions and express our concerns which would not have been possible in a general meeting.” - Navid Soheilnia