QDIS Blog

One of the questions I am commonly asked is why I decided on a career in the pharmaceutical industry. My answer really depends on who is asking and what seems to be at the core of why they are asking. My short answer is that I’ve known many people who have had cancer or other serious diseases and I want to feel like I can help alleviate some of the suffering.

My longer answer is that I’ve always had an interest in chemistry from my earliest childhood and can remember with great excitement when I received a chemistry kit one year for Christmas. I found organic chemistry particularly interesting when I was in high school chemistry class. It was then that I decided I wanted to study chemistry in college; I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do exactly, but I wanted to study chemistry. Before my senior year in high school, I had attended a two week summer chemistry course at Indiana State University with a wonderful professor, Dr. Alan Siegel. Since Indiana State offered me a scholarship and I knew a little bit about the department, I decided to go there. It was probably good for me to be at a smaller university for my undergraduate degree. And although not required, I did do undergraduate research with Dr. Richard Kjonaas studying organozinc reagents and their addition to alpha, beta-unsaturated ketones, and received a wonderful education. At the urging of Dr. Kjonaas, I decided to look into going to graduate school and finally after looking at several universities decided to attend Purdue University. Dr. Kjonaas received his PhD from Purdue University working for Dr. Robert Holton and so he was encouraging me to consider Purdue. After getting my degree from Purdue, I decided I did not want to be in academia, and, since biology was not one of my strong suites, I decided to go to work in industry and focus on process development. I had several job offers in various areas such as fuel and oil lubricants and candy and food but I decided helping people and developing new medicines was the better choice.

But back to my short answer, I really do care a lot about helping other people. I’ve had a grandfather die of prostate cancer and several other friends and relatives die from other cancers so any time I run into problems I just pull out their pictures and it reminds me of why I do what I do.

Email Ed Vawter

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