'Non-academic Career Tracks' Networking Reception hosted by INet NYC

Words by Vacha Patel
Edited by Ipshita Zutshi

INET NYC hosted a formal roundtable discussion and networking reception, “Non-academic career tracks for International scientists” on November 13th, 2018, at the New Science building, NYU. The room had ten round tables, each with an assigned mentor of specific career expertise. The attendees could sign up for three out of nine available topics, allowing them to rotate around tables and meet three different mentors for 20 minutes each.

We are indebted to our star mentors who made time from their busy schedule and graced us with their presence, knowledge and shared with our audience their insights.

Thomas Clozel at the Entrepreneurship/Data Science table, an international scientist from France, is the CEO and co-founder of Owkin, a company that integrates AI with medical research; also, the first to be backed by Google. Clozel is a Doctor and was an assistant professor in clinical hematology. He enlightened his audience with counsel on the transition from academia, guidance on entrepreneurship and an informal discourse on how to start a company from scratch.

Jan Philipp Balthasar Müller at the Data Science table an international scientist from Germany is a physicist by training, with an insightful sense of white-collar independence. By various means like freelancing, he has been self-reliant since his graduation. He’s waiting on his green card through the national waiver program, a topic of great interest in the audience.
​
Vesna Tosic at the Finance/Equity Research/Investor Relations table an international scientist from Serbia, got a Ph.D. from the USA in immunology. Tosic at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is responsible for the investors' relations while divergently talking to the wall street. Being an international STEM graduate student, she is familiar with the struggles faced by a similar crowd and happily talked about it.

Sloka Iyengar at the Science communications table an international scientist from India has done work in research, consulting, science writing and teaching. Iyenger is currently a medical director at Phase Five Communications and she also teaches medical communications at NYU and an online course for educators, ‘Seminars on science’ at the American Museum of Natural History. On being asked by an interested audience how she got the job at the museum, she casually said, “because I know people.” Just again demonstrating the virtues of networking.

Matthew Cotter at the Pharma table, an international scientist from the U.K. accomplished his Ph.D. internationally, moved to Canada for a post-doc and then the USA earning two other postdocs. He has been working with Pfizer, a research-based biopharmaceutical company for the past ten years. After spending a fair amount of time as a medical director in oncology, his tenure extended to the position of a senior medical director of global medical affairs. He explored further on the transition to pharma industry and green card opportunities.

Upal Basu Roy at the Non-profit table, an international scientist from India is the sui generis from non-profit, has a one-off trajectory with Ph.D., Postdoc at NYU and a master’s in Public health. His work has given him the opportunities to work with a diverse range of people from academia, Pharma industry to the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

Christy Kuo at the Pharma table, an international scientist from Taiwan, with insightful subjectivity on J1 visa affairs and J1 waivers transfiguring to green card opportunities. Kuo has a Ph.D. at Weill Cornell University and later pursued a postdoc at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is now a senior scientist at Pfizer.
Valentina Schneeberger at the Consulting table is a life science consultant, who explained the elemental brass tacks of consulting. Her academic narrative is a Ph.D. in cancer biology and postdoc at Sloan Kettering cancer center. Schneeberger’s take on this profession is that, “Consulting is a good way to get to another place if you are not quite sure what to do.” She evinces of at least two speakers whose careers were aided by the patronage of consulting.

Prakrit Jena at the Entrepreneurship table, an international scientist from India, is a CEO and co-founder of a fast-growing company, LipidSense. Jena’s transition from a postdoc at the Sloan Kettering is a pioneering descriptive essay about a lipid sensor they made. He duly credits his success to the Elab NYC program, funded by New York City for biotech startups. His word to the wise for startups is the importance of board members and/or mentors who are also CEO's of at least two companies.

Yukie Takabatake at the Biotech table an international scientist from Japan, has a Ph.D. in cancer biology and postdoc from Mount Sinai. Takabatake is currently a principal scientist at MouSensor, Inc. Being an international scientist and now a green card holder, she hustled into the tangled realm of visa issues bagging a room full of affirmative nods.

On the one hand, as different origins, nationalities, and cultures, these mentors have experiences and backgrounds worlds apart. On the other hand, they had worlds in common through their struggles, challenges, in a country and city that’s grim, relentless yet magnificent, vivid, divine. Hence keep watching this space for more events by us, for New York City is full of opportunities and it’s all about being in the right place at the right time.