October 2018

Consider a Postdoctoral Fellowship in a Federal Laboratory: Consider NRC RAP

Career Story Plus by Christopher Kovacs, PhD Candidate (defending in December 2018!)

Thinking about life post-graduate studies can be a daunting exercise in self humility – most of us know what we want to do; but the specific where, when and how to get there often forces the topic out of mind only to be replaced by doubt.   That was certainly my own disposition until very recently.  Thankfully, I learned about a tremendous postdoctoral fellowship opportunity that appealed to my own future aspirations and I am happy to be able to share my experience in hopes that someone else can similarly benefit from it.

Working in the Valley of the Shadow of Death - Transferring New Technologies from the Research Lab to Commercial Manufacturing

Career Story by Rick Lawless, Director of Industry Programs at NC State University

During the first 21 years of my working career, I performed various roles associated with the commercial production of industrial biochemicals, clinical diagnostic products, and vaccines.  My instructions were simple: manufacture products that met all expectations for quality, compliance, cost, and supply.  Of course, no one should die or get hurt in the process.  While I had some appreciation for product features and knew that countless preclinical and clinical evaluations had been conducted to prove that the products were safe and effective, I must admit that I rarely thought about how the processes made it to the manufacturing floor.

A Career Filled with Opportunity, Therapeutics, and Music!

Career Story by Gerhard Bauer, PhD, Professor of Hematology and Oncology, and Director of The GMP Laboratory at UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures

I was born and grew up in Austria, in a small town about 100 kilometers west of Vienna. At age 6 already I started to learn the classical piano, and I remember being featured as a “Kid Star” pianist at age 7. I continued to study the piano for another 8 years, but when my piano teacher wanted me to switch to atonal music and would not let me play the jazz and popular music of the 1920s and 1930s, I quit and never really touched the instrument again. And to be fair, there was no real way of studying jazz and syncopated dance music in Austria; it’s the land of classical music.  I soon moved to Vienna where I attended college and medical school.