Many students who have graduated from the UBC Chemistry Department have moved into very successful careers in industry, academics, government and business. This page highlights just a few students who have graduated from our department.

NEWS: Philip Britz-McKibbin has received the 2010 ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Young Investigators in Separation Science. He is the second UBC grad to receive this award (Michael Bowser received it in 2005). A symposium will be organized in the 2011 Pittsburgh Conference to honour his achievement.

Philip Britz-McKibbin

Ph.D., 1999 (Supervisor: Dr. David D. Y. Chen)

Assistant Professor in Bio-analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at McMaster University.

Current Position: Responsibilities include research, graduate/undergraduate teaching and service on departmental committees among other things.

Career Path: After graduating in 1999, Dr. Britz-McKibbin traveled through South America (2000) then did a teaching post-doc position at University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2000-2001), then a research post-doc in Japan for 2 years (2001-2003) with a Japan Society for Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship until his return to Canada with a faculty position at McMaster in 2003.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in his job: "The most important aspect was the support of my supervisor who was rigorous yet open-minded, and flexible in ways my research projects were continuously evolving. The environment was conducive to foster independent research which allowed discovery a novel phenomonena not forseen in our original research proposal or objectives. Thus, creativity, vision and perseverance are qualities that are extremely important to develop inquisitive researchers very useful in my current position."

Advice from Dr. Britz-McKibbin: "Take time to explore and gain experience in research abroad if possible as a way to enhance your research experience and personal growth. Strive for interdisciplinary research, grant proposal writing and teaching experience as a way to prepare yourself for the rigours of academic life."

Saman Alavi

Ph.D. 1999 (Robert F. Snider)

Department of Chemistry, University of Ottawa and Researcher at the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, National Research Council of Canada

Current Position: Involves completing computational and theoretical modeling of materials for environmental engineering applications. Supervising undergrad and grad students on the theory and practice of molecular simulations. Keeping track of the literature and becoming familiar with the latest experimental and computational techniques used for characterizing bulk materials and nanoparticle phases. This information guides future projects.

Career Path: After graduating in 1999, Dr. Alavi worked a few years as a post-doctoral fellow and research associate in Canada and the US.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in his job: "My studies at UBC gave me a sound foundation of theoretical chemistry which I was later able to compliment with knowledge of modern computational techniques."

Advice from Dr. Alavi: " Get familiar with modern trends in computational chemistry and choose your systems of study with future job markets in mind. Computation chemistry is now at a stage where predictions on complex molecular systems can be made which are useful to researchers performing experiments. A computational chemist should become familiar with experimental techniques in order to find new problems and new ways of contributing to our chemical understanding."

Anna D. Gudmundsdottir

M.Sc., 1989 (Supervisor: Dr. John R. Scheffer)

Ph.D., 1993 (Supervisor: Dr. John R. Scheffer)

Associate Professor, Chemistry Department, University of Cincinnati

Current Position: Dr. Gudmundsdottir's work focuses mainly on running her research group, writing papers and proposals, teaching classes and serving on various committees.

Career Path: Before she joined the faculty at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Gudmundsdottir was a post-doctoral fellow at the Michigan State University with Professor Peter Wagner and then a NATO postdoctoral fellow with Professor Matt Platz at the Ohio State University.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in her job: "Learning how to conduct research, how to tackle research problems and become a critical thinker."

Advice from Dr. Gudmundsdottir: "Enjoy your research while becoming an independent researcher. After your PhD a postdoctoral position that broadens your research experience is a must."

Cecilia L. Stevens

Ph.D., 2004 (Supervisors: Dr. Bob Thompson and Dr. Alan Storr)

Chemist, Polymer Engineering Company Ltd.

Current Position: Polymer Engineering Company Ltd. is a small firm that does contract R&D. Clients approach the company with problems to do with polymeric products - everything from product design to production-line trouble-shooting to forensic analysis of failures. The PEC team designs experimental programs for their clients, and implement the programs, and then write them up. Dr. Stevens is involved in every step of the process, and so far, she has had two conference presentations and one patent during her time there.

Career Path: She started at PEC immediately after graduating (okay, she took a few weeks off for vacation) and has been there ever since.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in her job: "Some of the more useful skills I learned during my time at UBC were how to do a quick, effective literature search, how to reduce a complicated problem to a series of questions that can each individually be answered, how to learn about a new field-- my grad work was in inorganic magnetochemistry, so it hasn't been of much immediate use in my job--and most importantly, how to tell the important details from the unimportant details in a dataset."

Advice from Dr. Stevens: "Since I actually had to switch branches of chemistry for this job, I'll say to all chemists--and this actually applies to all grad students--that there is a reason why your PhD diploma doesn't say 'Chemistry' or even 'Science'. The most important skills you learn during your grad work are universal to all fields, and you shouldn't let the subject of your grad work restrict your career."

Emily Chung

Ph.D., 2004 (Supervisors: Dr. Mike Wolf and Dr. Dan Bizzotto)

Regional Online Journalist, CBC Ottawa.

Current Position: As the regional online journalist for CBC.ca, Dr. Chung is in charge of news on the CBC Ottawa website. She writes news, post it on the site and add photos, audio, video and web links. Sometimes she also writes longer backgrounders, such as the ones for their Ontario election site.

Career Path: After Dr. Chung graduated from UBC, she did a year-long reporting internship at the Toronto Star. Then she did some traveling and came back to Vancouver, where she worked as a grant writer for UBC's Faculty of Applied Science and as a reporter for the Vancouver Sun newspaper. After that, she started as a regional online journalist at CBC.ca in Ottawa. She has also been writing for many years for a kids' science magazine called Yes Mag, and she continues to do that. In fact, in the next issue will be the first installment of her regular chemistry column.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in her job: "My job is very independent, as I'm the only CBC.ca journalist in Ottawa. That means I have to plan my work, set my own goals and deadlines, and carry out the work largely on my own while maintaining communication with my colleagues and supervisors, who offer help and direction if I need it. In that way, it's really not that different from grad school. I deal with large amounts of information, and need to make critical judgements quickly, so my research background probably helps with that. Also, I'm more or less a "professional explainer" so TAing was great practice."

Advice from Dr. Chung: "It doesn't hurt to have a different educational background than other people and can make you stand out. But if you choose a career outside chemistry, make sure you gain as many qualifications as you can in the field you wish to pursue before you graduate."

Jana Pika

Ph.D., 1993 (Supervisor: Dr. Raymond Andersen)

Director of Analytical Innovation, Firmenich Aromatics (China) Co. Ltd.

Current Position: Dr. Pika's main responsibilities are to train and develop their new R&D team in Shanghai. They work on many aspects of analytical chemistry related to the flavor and fragrance industry, from natural products research to quantitative analysis.

Career Path: After obtaining her PhD, Dr. Pika worked as a post-doc in the area of marine natural products for two years. She and her husband then relocated to New Jersey in 1995 for his job, and she eventually found a position as a scientist with Firmenich. After seven years at the bench, Dr. Pika became the Director of analytical R&D for North America, a position she held until the summer of 2007 when she relocated to China with her family.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in her job: "The most valuable skills that I learned were organizational skills, a rigorous, systematic, critical approach to research, strong technical writing skills and the ability to work well within a group."

Advice from Dr. Pika: "My general career advice would be to look beyond the obvious career opportunities. There are many interesting industries that are not so big or keep low profiles. Many of these employ chemists and the opportunities can be very interesting."

Robert Andrew Britton

Ph.D., 2002 (Supervisors: Dr. Ed Piers and Dr. Raymond Andersen)

Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University.

Current Position: Dr. Britton runs a research group of 4-5 graduate students and between 1-3 undergraduates (on average) and a postdoctoral fellow. Their research focuses on the isolation and total synthesis of biologically active natural products (see his website: http://www.sfu.ca/chemistry/groups/britton/home.html for more details). He also has a teaching load of 2 classes per year and is currently involved in teaching the introduction to organic chemistry to 2nd year students.

Career Path: In 2002, Dr. Britton ventured to the University of Cambridge with a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship for research into the stereochemical assignment and total synthesis of complex macrolides with Professor Ian Paterson. In 2004, Dr. Britton accepted a position as Senior Research Chemist in the Process Research group at Merck Frosst Canada. He was there for about a year before joining the faculty at Simon Fraser University in 2005 as an assistant professor.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in his job: "I carried out Ph. D. research in two different labs (Andersen and Piers) and consequently I gained expertise in two different areas of organic chemistry. The ability to rapidly solve complex organic structures by NMR spectroscopy (skills gained from the Andersen lab) complimented my work in the Piers lab on total synthesis. In addition, as a natural product chemist, one is forced to think about how nature makes molecules and this often helps in designing a synthesis for a molecule, as there is no doubt that nature is the most efficient synthetic chemist! This broad background in organic chemistry has been a great asset throughout my career. For instance, as a postdoctoral fellow in Cambridge I was able to apply my expertise in NMR spectroscopy in the determination of the 3 dimensional structure of an antimitotic natural product of which there was only 1 mg in the world, this work laid the foundation for our eventual total synthesis of this substance and, potentially, the development of a new cancer therapy. My research group at SFU is broadly focused on natural product isolation, structure determination and synthesis as I feel that this combination of skills is essential foundation for a career in organic chemistry."

Advice from Dr. Britton: "Work hard, keep abreast of the current literature in the area and don't get caught up on a single idea - always keep your mind open to alternate approaches to solving a problem."

Sarah Everts

M.Sc., 2001 (Supervisor: Dr. Lawrence McIntosh)

European Correspondent, Science, Technology and Education, Chemical & Engineering News

Current Position: As C&EN's European Correspondent for Science, Technology and Education, Ms Everts is based in Berlin, Germany. In this role she attends a lot of conferences, about 1-2 a month. She also visits scientists and research institutes around Europe in order to write articles that provide the magazine readership with a flavor of the European chemistry scene. She spends a lot of time speaking to scientists, either on the phone or in person, and she spends even more time in front of her computer writing and doing research. According to Ms Everts, she reads far more research articles as a reporter than she ever did as a graduate student.

Career Path: While at UBC, Ms Everts wrote a monthly column for the Graduate, which is a magazine published by the UBC Graduate Student's Association. After graduating, she mixed traveling with contract technical writing. She started writing some travel freelance articles (one of her first pieces was about spelunking in a Belizean cave full of Mayan sacrifice remains which ran in the National Post for Halloween). She ended up completing a master's degree in journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa where she specialized in broadcast journalism. After a mix of contracts, freelancing and internships at media organizations such as the Discovery Channel Canada, Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail, CBC TV, CBC Radio, and Maclean's magazine, she returned to her scientific roots and joined C&EN in Washington DC. In early 2007, C&EN's European correspondent retired. Ms Everts applied and got the job, then moved to Berlin in August 2007.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in her job: "I learnt a lot of chemistry and how research works--incrementally, and in teams. I met a lot of great chemists."

Advice from Ms. Everts: "If you want to be a science journalist, take a writing class that focuses on reporting. Consider a journalism graduate program. Read a lot of research papers in a diversity of fields to learn about the breadth of the scientific enterprise. Read a lot of solid journalism so that you are exposed to and inspired by excellent writing: magazines such as the New Yorker or the Walrus and good newspapers like the Globe and Mail or the New York Times. (While research papers can be intellectually inspiring, they are rarely elegant in their prose.) Start pitching articles to small, local papers and magazines to develop a writing portfolio. Then work your way up to more prestigious media organizations. Get used to being edited and never take it personally. There's no piece of writing that can't be improved."

Shawn Walker

Ph.D., 2002 (Supervisors: Dr. Ed Piers)

Senior Scientist, Chemical Process R&D, Amgen Inc.

Current Position: The Process Research group is responsible for the development and implementation of novel chemistry for the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). This includes route selection, optimization, final form selection (salt, polymorph) and GMP scale-up of the drug substance. The goal is to drive development by 1) delivering API for toxicology studies and human clinical trials and 2) delivering technology to enable commercial production. Process chemists work closely with colleagues in Analytical Chemistry, Pharmaceutics and Engineering. Responsibilities also include technical writing for patents, regulatory filings, tech reports and manuscripts for external publication.

Career Path: After graduating from UBC, Dr. Walker spent 2 yrs as a Post-Doctoral fellow at MIT in the laboratory of Stephen L. Buchwald. During this time, he worked on the development of a new generation of biphenyl based phosphine ligands (e.g. SPhos) for use in Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. They found that structural refinements to the ligand backbone provided catalysts with improved stability and superb reactivity in cross-coupling processes including the Suzuki Miyaura reaction. As a result, general and efficient syntheses of sterically hindered biaryls, heteroaryls and mild couplings of alkylboron derivatives were achieved at low catalyst loadings and remarkably high turn-over numbers were obtained for the reactions of unactivated aryl halides. Other workers have since demonstrated the value of these ligands for Pd-catalyzed C-N bond forming processes as well as application to other metal-catalyzed reactions. MIT has a great industrial recruiting program and every fall a number of chemical and pharmaceutical companies hold on-campus interviews with students and post-docs. As a result of this process, an Amgen recruiter invited Dr. Walker to visit the Thousand Oaks campus. Once he met the Process Chemistry group, he knew he wanted to join the team.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in his job: "Attention to detail and solid fundamentals. The chemistry department was well equipped and the environment was supportive - it was a great place to grow as a scientist."

Advice from Dr. Walker: "Most of the scientists in our department have strong backgrounds in synthetic organic chemistry. My advice is to surround yourself with the best colleagues possible and work on a challenging and exciting synthetic problem."

Ting Kang

Ph.D., 2001 (Supervisor: Dr. John R. Scheffer)

Senior Scientist, Targanta Therapeutics.

Current Position: As senior scientist at Targanta Therapeutics, Dr. Kang's responsibility involves design, synthesis, purification and identification of small organic molecules with the potential to be developed as antibiotics, and supervision of research associates.

Career Path: After his graduation from UBC, Dr. Kang spent two years in University of Toronto as a postdoctoral fellow before joining Targanta in October, 2003.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in his job: "I think I got very good professional training at UBC that helped me to quickly adjust to different working environment. This involves chemistry thinking, operation of instruments, presentation in front of an audience, supervision skills and team work."

Advice from Dr. Kang: "Knowledge always comes first. Prepare yourself with as much knowledge as possible. Not just chemistry, biology as well, especially when you want to become a medicinal chemist. Good work ethic. Most of time, there is no short cut to get to the goal. You have to be determined and work hard to fulfill it. Get along with people. This is one of the assets you must have to be successful in industry."

Philip Johnson

Ph.D., 1998 (Supervisor: Dr. Lawrence Mackintosh)

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, York University

Current Position: Being a professor, doing teaching and research.

Career Path: Fairly straightforward, Dr. Johnson did post-doctoral research for 2 years at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Maryland Baltimore County, then got a faculty job.

Experience from UBC Chemistry most helpful in his job: "Perseverance."

Advice from Dr. Johnson: "Find an uncrowded niche to work in, make your own and try to get lucky."