BDC SOCIETY SHOWCASE: PROGRAM, STUDENT, AND COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

Are you an employer in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry and want to connect and engage with talented students who are at the cutting edge of biomedical science and commerce? You are cordially invited to attend the Biomedical Discovery and Commercialization Program’s Industry Preview Career Fair taking place Friday, September 21st.

Registration for employers is FREE.  Please contact bdcintern@mcmaster.ca to reserve your booth today.

On Friday, April 6^th, 2018, the BDC Engage Symposium marked the culmination of a year’s worth of academic efforts in the Biomedical Discovery & Commercialization program. The annual event brought together faculty, students, and industry members to showcase the program’s successes over the 2017-2018 year.

The event offered BDC students a chance to hone both their networking and communication skills—essential tools they will need for success in the workplace. Third-year students delivered poster presentations and pitches from an entrepreneurial perspective, while students from the fourth-year and Master’s cohort gave talks on their capstone thesis and internship experience, respectively. The event provided students with a platform to share their professional experiences with an interdisciplinary audience, a unique feature of the program. “The annual BDC Engage symposium is always an inspiring showcase of the great strides our program makes, especially through the featured student projects. It’s also a unique and valuable collision of students, faculty, and industry professionals from the commercially-oriented biomedical/health sciences ecosystem,” said Daniel Celeste, a fourth-year BDC student.

MBDC student presents his internship experience in healthcare consulting to the audience at BDC Engage.

Third-year students present their 3B06 drug discovery project to industry partners.

BDC Engage is one of many opportunities the program offers students to ensure they thrive in a field where science and business intersect. “The symposium embodies the uniqueness of the BDC program in a single event. It connects us as driven and hardworking students with industry members, world-renowned researchers, and business ventures,” said Hamdi Abdo, the incoming 2018-2019 BDC society president. Abdo also spoke positively about being able to contribute to the success of the day. “…Getting to be a part of [BDC Engage] was fantastic!”

Professors, biomedical researchers, and industry professionals were highly impressed with the multidisciplinary training offered through the program and the quality of work students produced.  “I was particularly happy to see such high levels of professionalism, technical knowledge, passion, and competence in the subject matter,” said Professor Aadil Merali Juma, assistant professor from the DeGroote School of Business. “I am convinced that we have the best students in this program and that the work being done will make a difference in the field of medicine and management of non-communicable diseases, in the decades ahead.”

The BDC Faculty and Staff wishes everyone a happy summer and looks forward to reconvening for the 2018-2019 year in the fall.

On September 22, 2017, the BDC program held its second annual career fair in CIBC Hall to celebrate the start of the 2017-2018 academic year. The event expanded on the success of last year’s career fair, and included a panel discussion and a networking session that allowed BDC students to engage with representatives from biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

A list of companies that attended the 2017 Industry Preview Fair.

Members of the BDC student society began the career fair by facilitating a panel discussion, during which Megan Coombes (Hoffman-LaRoche), Tom Hendrikson (Sixsense), Rory Curtis (Albany Molecular Research Inc.), Michelle Kerrison (Sanofi Pasteur), and Alexandria Papa (Pfizer) offered personal insight on key topics of interest. Common overarching themes included desirable qualities in potential employees, general career/personal advice, and how each panelist reached the current point in their career.

BDC students take advantage of the personal career insight offered by various industry representatives during the open-floor networking session.

Many industry representatives had positive words for both the event and the BDC program as a whole. “[BDC students] have together what I had to do separately,” said Alexandria Papa, a senior business analyst at Pfizer who obtained an undergraduate degree in science, a graduate degree in bioinformatics, and an MBA before finding a career path suited to her science/business interests. “For [BDC students] to have that bridge already established and to have people in academia and the institution helping [BDC students] makes me really happy.”

Michelle Kerrison, a McMaster Commerce alumnus and supply chain manager at Sanofi Pasteur, had similar praise. “It’s important for people to think about what they want to do after school,” said Kerrison. “By combining science with commercialization, [the BDC program] really shows students what opportunities are out there.”

Left to right: Alexandria Papa (Pfizer) and Michelle Kerrison (Sanofi-Pasteur) providing advice to BDC students.

For students wishing to consider paths beyond graduate and professional school, interacting with health care sector employers proved invaluable. The open-floor networking session gave students the opportunity to ask industry representatives specific questions pertaining to their individual career interests. “The BDC administrative team did a phenomenal job recruiting a myriad of big-name pharmaceutical and biotech companies,” said Gabriella Paniccia, a fourth-year undergraduate BDC student. “I definitely always take advantage of these situations by trying to make a lasting impression [on the companies I interact with].”

“Many students don’t get the opportunity to explore networking during their undergraduate education,” added Hamdi Abdo, a third-year undergraduate BDC student. “I found [the BDC Career Fair] to be both informative and helpful in terms of getting out of my comfort zone and communicating with industry members.”

Other students explored available internship opportunities, a mandatory part of the one-year BDC course-based Master’s program. “The Career Fair was extremely valuable in developing my network with potential employers,” said Alyssa Posca, a BDC Master’s student. “Building relationships with hiring managers and recruiters is one of the most important parts of the job search – and this event was a great opportunity to do so!”

(left to right) Rachel Fong (Master of BDC graduate), with current Master of BDC students: Sawyer Karabelas-Pittman, Alyssa Posca, and Jonsson Liu at the BDC Career Fair.

“BDC students can be quite competitive for a wide range of career choices due to the nature of the courses within the program,” said Michelle Trottier, former BDC career development and relationship associate. “The purpose of the fair was to provide students the opportunity to ask questions and have insight to the opportunities they can explore with their degree.”

Many thanks to Michelle Trottier, who conceptualized and implemented the past two BDC Career Fairs!  The BDC Career Fair marked Michelle’s last event, as she has since moved on to an amazing opportunity in the UK.  The BDC office welcomes a new career development and relationship manger to the team, Emily Taylor, and wishes Michelle all the best in her new position as Faculty Employment Advisor at the University of Bristol.

Insights Magazine, a prominent national BIOTECanada magazine covering the biotech industry in Canada, has published an article this month written by BDC student Christine Chow, External Associate of the BDC student society. Christine’s most recent article will be read by thousands of industry professionals and gain international exposure at the 2017 BIO Conference in San Diego. Consequently, preparing the article proved to be an extensive process. Christine interviewed fellow BDC undergraduate students, graduate students, and aspiring student entrepreneurs to obtain source material and shape it into an article, both in English and in French.

Christine mentions that her involvement with the BDC student society has allowed her to practice gathering information and relaying it in a cohesive manner – a skill she intends to add to a growing portfolio. In a program that integrates science with business, research with commercialization, and academia with industry, she finds that it is essential to be able to share with others not only the specifics but also the significance of one’s work. Regardless of whether it pertains to a report on research findings, a news article, or a project pitch, Christine believes that there is always a story to be told, and that it is her role to ensure it is heard.

Christine’s full article can be read here.

Engaging students, faculty and industry partners– the aptly named BDC Engage Symposium, held on Monday, April 10th, marked a successful end to the program’s 2016-2017 academic year. The event allowed students at all academic levels to showcase their accomplishments, celebrating achievements from the team start-up course, thesis projects, and graduate internship experiences.

BDC Engage marked the first encounter of many in the third-year cohort with poster presentations. One of the main challenges they faced included proposing a commercial aspect of their research-based course and pitching it in the form of a startup company, as it demanded that students equip themselves with the creativity required to succeed in future entrepreneurial endeavors – a rare out-of-the-classroom opportunity.

The event also displayed the diverse experiences offered from three separate years and perspectives of the program. “As a third-year student, BDC Engage gave me insight on how we might develop both academically and collectively in our upcoming years as BDC students,” said Shaili Champaneria, the incoming BDC society president for the 2017-2018 academic year.

With convocation fast approaching for the fourth-year BDC students, others saw the sentimental value in an event that unified BDC students across different years by program. “[BDC Engage] was a great way to finish the academic term,” said Madeleine Rudolph, a fourth year BDC student and the outgoing BDCS president of the 2016-2017 academic year. “My favorite part of the day was getting to see how tightly-knit the student community is. I love knowing that I can leave the position of BDCS President having contributed, even if just minimally, to the presence of community in our program.”

The BDC Society would like to thank the BDC program for a fantastic academic year and wishes everyone a happy summer!