In this Perspective on Pharma feature, Jung Doh, market development scientist at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, explains how they entered the pharmaceutical industry after an unexpected opportunity arose.
Academia
As an early career scientist with a good number of years of graduate and post-doctoral training (two post-docs, actually), I made an unexpected leap: from academia—where I thought I would spend my entire professional life—to industry. And though it wasn’t a move I’d initially planned, I’m the first to say that I’m incredibly happy to have ended up here, since it’s afforded me research and personal growth opportunities I didn’t even know I wanted.
After I received my doctorate in biology, I completed a post-doc in HIV research and a second, NASA-funded post-doc in the effects of microgravity on genomes. My dream—and a very concrete goal for many years—was to become a professor at a research university, running my own lab in an area I was passionate about.