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Profiles of Midcareer Acceleration Program Students

Sunita... Stepping from academics into pharmaceuticals

Charles ...Catching up with nanotechnology

John...Launching a high-tech start-up

Ken...Learning state-of-the-art portfolio management

Ramon... Translating technical skills into economic development

Sunita
Analytical Scientist, Pharmaceutical Industry

» B.S., Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University, India
» M.S., Organic Chemistry, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University, India
» Ph.D., Analytical Chemistry, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University, India

Sunita built a solid career in analytical chemistry in her native India. She earned a Ph.D. in 1994, won a national fellowship for excellence in analytical chemistry, and published or presented 24 professional papers. Then her life changed.

After moving to the Greater Boston area and a three-year job gap for family reasons, Sunita wanted to regain her professional edge and focus on a new field. Her goal was specific—to extend her knowledge to the pharmaceutical industry by learning the newest methods in drug analysis and chromatography separation techniques.

The academic component--taking a course in Principles and Practices in Drug Development--met her initial aim. “The MIT course gave me the professional environment where I could network with fellow researchers from school as well as from the industry and have fruitful discussions on the latest research,” she says. And her internship at Waters Corporation, a laboratory analytical instrument and software company, boosted her confidence by offering exposure to latest trends, techniques, and software in her field. These experiences, plus training in job search and negotiation skills, helped her land her new job with a pharmaceutical chemistry services company.

How would she describe her decision to enroll in the MIT Midcareer Acceleration Program? “One of the best decisions in my life,” she says. “It changed my outlook on job search and career.”

She also found support in the MAP community. “All of my fellow MAP participants were highly qualified. We could identify with each other in our career needs and goals. We encouraged and helped each other.”

Charles
Principal Engineer, Power Components and Systems Industry

» S.B., Materials Science and Engineering, MIT
» S.M., Materials Science and Engineering, MIT

The drive to learn about nanotechnology and self-assembling materials brought Charles back to MIT. He had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1982, then spent 20 years developing and implementing advanced materials processing and manufacturing technologies. “I really wanted to challenge myself to see if I could still keep up with the high level of academic presentation, and I wanted to learn something new to me.”

The MIT Midcareer Acceleration Program offered Charles a seat in an MIT classroom and support for career development. “I was able to get connected to the most up-to-date treatment of nanotechnology in the practical context of semiconductor processing,” Charles says. “The bonus that came with this was an excellent review of much of the fundamental thermodynamics, physical chemistry, and material science I had last studied 25 years earlier.”

His spring research collaboration with an MIT graduate student cemented the knowledge he absorbed in the fall course. “I assisted in designing and specifying an improved system with which to study the fabrication of carbon nanotubes in support of the development of a nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitor. This consisted substantially of applying what I had studied in 3.44 in the fall, and it was fun! The fun part has been missing from my career for some years.”

Additional benefits included the support of fellow MAP participants and staff, the January leadership seminar, and strategies for future career advancement.

“Remember how good it was when you were in college? Do you want to feel that particular spark of intellectual stimulation again? Do you want help figuring out how to get to the next leg in your career? Check out the MAP program,” advises Charles.

John
Computer Memory Designer

» B.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, U.C. Berkeley
» M.S., Electrical Engineering, U.C. Berkeley

John, an experienced computer memory engineer, was frustrated about management decisions to outsource a critical technology – computer memory. So he turned to the MIT Midcareer Acceleration Program to change the trajectory of his career – and wound up launching his own company.

“Essentially, MAP has launched me into starting a new high-tech startup, Next Generation Memories,” he says. “Initially it began as solving an efficiency problem at my previous employer who was outsourcing a lot of engineering overseas. Then it became a crusade to solve an industry-wide computer memory miniaturization problem, which led to a discovery to what would be the world's smallest computer memory for computer microprocessors or CPUs. Now that has morphed into a new memory technology that could allow an entire computer motherboard and small hard disk drive to be placed on one chip!”

John planned to use his time at MIT to connect with faculty working in innovative memory compilers and to use advanced software tools to forge his design ideas. He did that and more. “During the first semester at MIT I had time to focus away from work and see what the true industry hot button issues were. I think that engineers are many times so caught up in the current problems they are solving that they do not have enough bandwidth to step back and see the major challenges looming ahead. In an MIT setting, I could see through other eyes--professors, graduate students, and seminar speakers--and grasp what problem I really wanted to focus on solving.”

In the spring, his research project was the development of the business plan for his venture and he worked with a Sloan management professor who was a former general partner of his own patent law firm. John’s work has attracted the attention of the Department of Defense and he is applying for several DoD small business research innovation grants to build computer memory prototypes.

How would John, who is now president/CTO of his own firm with 10 patents granted or pending, recommend MAP? “If you want to reinvent yourself, the MIT MAP program and the community at MIT are a great starting place for a new vision.”

Ken
Consultant and Professor of Finance

» B.S., Engineering Physics, University of Michigan
» M.B.A., Finance, University of Florida, Gainesville
» Ph.D., Mathematics, Carnegie-Mellon University
» Ph.D., Finance, University of Colorado

After a decade teaching in universities in the U.S. and abroad and consulting, Ken wanted to re-energize his career and land a position in the portfolio management industry. He knew his field – his publications include a 1992 book titled Portfolio Management: New Models for Successful Investment Decisions. Yet, he still needed a bridge to support his transition from academia to a leadership position in the world of finance.

“My goals for the MAP program were to gain networking channels and make contacts within my area of financial economics,” says Ken. “In addition, I wanted to take the opportunity to bring my education up to the state of the art in the field of investment management.”

His internship at a Boston firm specializing in portfolio management provided invaluable insight into the industry and contacts within the industry, he says. “My MAP project was an in-depth examination of the use of digital signal processing in stock market applications. It gave me new insight on the state of the art and gave me new direction for my research and entrepreneurial efforts.”

Beyond his internship, Ken described the opportunity to interact with well-known faculty in his field as the most useful aspect of MAP. He took Financial Economics III taught by Sloan professor Andrew Lo. "This was a great course because it presented the state-of-the-art theory in most of the major areas of portfolio management. The professor was excellent! I am sure that I could not have found a better course anywhere in world."

And the camaraderie of others involved in career transitions provided a dynamic sounding board. “Other Map participants helped me to get my own situation in perspective and give me support for my own direction,” Ken says.

Ramon
Information Systems Architect

» S.B., Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT
» S.M., Systems Modeling and Optimization, MIT

“I had been clear about needing a career change but daunted by the task of handling it on my own while working,” says Ramon. “When I received MAP's description, I soon saw that it was nearly the perfect vehicle for doing what I needed to do. In retrospect, I do not think I would have been able, on my own, to accomplish the kind of career transition I was seeking.”

The opportunity and the moment were both right for him to return to his alma mater. Ramon wanted to leave his 30-year technical career building analytical models and information systems for areas ranging from Space Shuttle navigation to financial management. He could work part time during MAP and had his family’s support. His new career goal was to channel his skills and experience toward economic development. He grew up in Cuba and Puerto Rico so he was particularly interested in sustainable development and socioeconomic inequality in Caribbean and Latin American countries.

To shift his professional focus, Ramon needed to engage with the state-of-the-art data, theory, and debate on current issues. His course in Regional Socioeconomic Impact Analyses and Modeling was both refreshing and challenging. “On one hand I found it thrilling to be in an advanced learning environment again, exposed to substantial new materials. This stimulated much intensive thinking and internal debate about what I was embarking on.”

MAP’s multi-step experience supported his career transformation. “The very process of actively engaging in new learning--the course and mini research project--was crucial, but so were the career-focused sessions and the invaluable interactions with and support from the MAP staff. The very fact of engaging in and completing MAP provided me invaluable confidence and credibility as I approached people and organizations while searching for internship--and potential work--opportunities.”

Ramon landed an internship at Tufts Global Development & Environment Institute that has grown into a contract position working with economic impact assessment models for scenario projections of climate change and energy alternatives.

“Though I originally was not explicitly seeking opportunities directly related to climate change, I now see it is very much related to the kind of economic challenges and considerations I am interested in,” he says. “The opportunity to immerse myself in such a timely and relevant area of work has been a pleasant surprise.”