What Our Graduates are Saying...

Kerri A. Fischer
PharmE'03

"My current position is working for Eli Lilly in Indianapolis as a pharmaceutical chemist in the dry product development (formulation) area."

"The pharmaceutical program at UM was a great transition from the automotive industry to the pharmaceutical industry and taught me about all the various areas within the pharmaceutical industry and how they linked together. I was able to determine where my strengths and interests would be of value to the pharmaceutical industry while studying within this program, in order to be successful in the workplace."

Mobin Tawakkul
PharmE'03

"During my enrollment in the Univeristy of Michigan's innovative Interpro graduate program in pharmaceutical engineering in 2002–2003, I was exposed to a plethora of courses and professional development activities. I was impressed with the diverse availability of the courses the department provided me, especially since I was coming from a chemical engineering background. I was also intrigued with the emphasis on problem solving skills through individual and team-based projects, life-long learning and well-elucidated concepts taught by the course instructors in this rapidly evolving field of pharmaceutical engineering."

"The diverse courses I took ranged from state of the art issues such as emerging issues of pharmaceutical discovery and development (i.e. cheminformatics, pharmacogenomics, bioinformatics), seminars on strategies to improve the quality of manufacturing pharmaceuticals through the Process Analytical Technology (PAT) inititiative, FDA regulatory issues, advanced computational modeling and patent law for engineers. In addition, I was also exposed to hands-on research experience at U-M's Medical School into emerging fields such as proteomics. There were also networking opportunities obtained through knowledgeable instructors and fellow peers in this field. The various activities of the program offered me great background in my current position at FDA."

"I am currently focusing on drug product quality issues in the lab-based environment using both scientific and regulatory approaches through intramural and collaborative research."

Jonathan Miller
PharmE'04

"My current position is Principal Scientist in Formulations Development at Abbott Laboratories."

"The Pharmaceutical Engineering Program at The University of Michigan equipped me with the knowledge and skills needed to continue my education and pursue my Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Michigan. I was able to develop the knowledge and skills needed to advance my career as a pharmaceutical scientist and landed a job at a top Pharma company."

Paul Nkansah
PharmE'05

"I joined the Pharmaceutical Engineering program because it seemed like an excellent opportunity to bridge my training in chemical engineering and a career in the pharmaceutical industry."

"I found the program to be well run and the faculty and staff always seemed interested in my success. One of the unique aspects of the program was that it effectively integrated lectures by guest speakers from industry and FDA into the traditional classroom environment. It is therefore not surprising that over the course of my studies I had the opportunity to listen to some fifty plus guest lecturer - many of whom are experts in their fields. The program also leverages Michigan’s leadership in engineering and science education through a clever interdisciplinary curriculum. The diverse range of courses I was allowed to take; from pharmacokinetics, chemoinformatics, polymers physics, nanotechnology to statistics and patent law, have provided me the interdisciplinary training which is imperative for 21st century pharmaceutical research."

Carmen Ho
PharmE'04

"My current position is in Cell culture process development at Shire Human Genetic Therapies."

"The Pharmaceutical Engineering program equipped me with up-to-date knowledge of the evolving biotech/pharm industry as well as practical experience. What I liked most was the flexibility to choose my own courses of interest in addition to the core classes. The project-based assignments were beneficial for the development of my writing and presentation skills. Also, there were ample opportunities to network with experts in industry."

Laura Dellal
PharmE'03

My time in the PharmE program was actually my favorite time of my five years at U-M. I had a wide variety of classes relating to pharmaceutical design, experimental design, and regulatory issues. We were a small group of students and really got along well. I was a member of the student chapter of ISPE, and we went on many tours of pharmaceutical facilities. I also participated in the Wolverine Biotech Forum in Boston in conjunction with the MBA program.

The fact that intellectual property was stressed in many of the PharmE classes prompted me to consider going to law school to be a patent attorney. I started clerking for Kohn & Associates, a biotech IP firm, right out of the PharmE program, clerked all throughout law school, and am now the head of our Los Angeles office. I write and prosecute patents as well as provide infringement and validity opinions with all areas of biotechnology, such as small molecule drugs, biologics, and medical devices. While the subject matter learned in the PharmE program definitely helped with my career, I believe the critical and creative thinking that I acquired from all of my engineering classes has been the most beneficial to writing patents and helping my clients achieve their business goals.

Lawrence Wai
PharmE'01

"The perspectives I gained from the Pharmaceutical Engineering program have proved to be the bedrock of my career. Throughout my healthcare experiences in R&D, marketing and management, I stepped into each role confident that I have the relevant technical and scientific understanding to excel in my responsibilities. It should be recognized that this is no small statement since education in the healthcare field has traditionally been very functional focused. The Pharmaceutical Engineering program enabled me to leverage my chemical engineering background and complement it with a practitioner and multi-disciplinary approach to developing solutions for my everyday challenges. The healthcare industry is fast changing. What the industry needs are people with the ability and the acumen to see beyond the current way of doing things. Few programs can prepare someone as well as the Pharmaceutical Engineering program for the industry-wide transformation in the years to come."

Lawrence is completing his M.B.A at Columbia Business School in 2008. After graduation, he will be a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Lawrence has prior experience in strategy consulting and the pharmaceutical industry. During the summer of 2007, he was both a summer associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and a global marketing intern at Merck & Co., Inc. Prior to business school, he spent 5 years at Merck, where he was a project manager with responsibility over the R&D portfolio. He also had experiences in different research and development areas at Merck. Lawrence received a M.Eng in Pharmaceutical Engineering and B.S.E in Chemical Engineering from University of Michigan in 2001.

Jennifer VanRoeyen
PharmE'03

"This was the perfect program to dive into the inner-workings of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The technical curriculum integrated engineering, science, business, and policy and prepared me for a successful technical and management consulting career."

Alex Hsieh
PharmE'06

"The Pharmaceutical Engineering Master program was an amazing opportunity for me to learn about areas of pharmaceutical development and drug delivery. I gained a great understanding of these areas through the program's interdisciplinary approach and focus on Quality by Design and Engineering.

"After I finished the Pharmaceutical Engineering Program in 2006, I was promoted to Principal Scientist where my new role focuses on executing and coaching Continuous Improvement projects in Pfizer World-wide Pharmaceutical Sciences. I also continue to pursue a Doctoral program in Manufacturing at University of Michigan. Pharmaceutical Engineering Program gives me a good perspective for my doctoral research, which involves interdisciplinary engineering collaborators."

Rebecca Cantor
PharmE'06

"I am currently finishing up my final year of law school at Michigan and after I take the bar I am planning on working at an intellectual property law firm in New York.

"The PharmE program took the theoretical foundations from undergraduate engineering and applied them to the real world. In particular, I feel that the PharmE program gave me a real understanding of the problems that the pharmaceutical industry currently faces and will face in the future. While I am not quite a lawyer yet, I hope to use the knowledge I gained in the PharmE program to find more efficient and effective legal solutions to some of the pharmaceutical industry's problems.

"One of the best parts about the PharmE program was the chance to interact both with students from other departments and with professors. The students were able to bring different knowledge to the table, and this helped me learn more aspects about pharmaceutical engineering. We also had professors who would sit in on our classes and who were always willing to chime in and help us understand key concepts.

"Perhaps the best part about the PharmE program was the chance to see how research and development is done at an actual pharmaceutical company. Being able to actually see pharmaceutical technology in action gives you a perspective that you are unable to gain by simply studying a book."

Jim Miesle
PharmE'05

"I feel that the Pharmaceutical Engineering program at the University of Michigan has been instrumental to my career in the pharmaceutical industry. The interdisciplinary focus of the program produces graduates who are prepared to succeed in a dynamic, cross-functional industry. The program combines engineering, pharmaceutics, science and statistics in order to train students to thrive within the framework of the FDA's "Pharmaceutical cGMPs for the 21st Century" approach. I can say first hand that the preparation I received by completing the program has been the corner stone of the foundation of career in the industry."