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I joined Eli Lilly and Company as a Process Chemist in 1984. Lilly had an incredible community of the world\u2019s top chemists, and I was motivated and inspired by both the chemistry and medicine development that was being done, especially in the areas of infectious disease, oncology, and neuroscience.<\/p>\n
Because I enjoyed teaching, I also took\u00a0 teaching positions in the graduate programs of IUPUI and Butler Universities. I taught courses included organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and analytical chemistry. It was a joy to see my students learn and apply their knowledge to their \u201cday jobs\u201d, thesis projects, and eventually for many, future graduate degrees.<\/p>\n
During the 1980\u2019s, there were only a few women and minority Ph.D.\u2019s in Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL), and the President of LRL, Dr. Mel Perelman, initiated an effort to increase the representation by forming a committee called \u201cF.A.M.I.L.Y.:\u00a0 Females and Minorities in Lilly.\u201d Our incredible leader, Dr. Laura Mendelsohn, invited representatives from various areas of LRL, and I was chosen to represent Process Chemistry. Among the strategies the committee pursued was a funding initiative to support undergraduate and graduate women\u2019s travel to scientific meetings to present their first paper. The rationale, somewhat obviously, was to enable funding for that all-important first step into public recognition and real-time feedback on one\u2019s scientific work.\u00a0 I volunteered to sponsor the travel award for the American Chemical Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
F.A.M.I.L.Y. I joined Eli Lilly and Company as a Process Chemist in 1984. Lilly had an incredible community of the world\u2019s top chemists, and I was motivated and inspired by both the chemistry and medicine development that was being done, …<\/p>\n