Student Profiles

Zofia at ASU Spring 2009 Commencement

Zofia M. Wosinska
Ph.D. in Chemistry, 2009
Current Career: Scientist on a management track at Ventana Medical Systems

Interdisciplinary has been the word to describe my academic adventure from the very beginning.

My family and I moved to the United States from Poland in the early nineties when my parents were offered teaching positions in the Department of Psychology at ASU. Growing up with psychologist parents strongly influenced my early academic career, initially swaying me to follow in their footsteps by pursuing a B.S. degree in psychology. When taking required science courses, however, I stumbled upon a passion for chemistry. I loved the challenge of the discipline and continued to take chemistry courses throughout my undergraduate career. Eventually I was offered an organic chemistry teaching assistant position. I was also involved in a research project in the psychology department, which gave me my first exposure to the scientific method. My honors thesis, "Psychoneuroimmunology of Oncological Diseases", combined my interests in both the natural and social sciences. My free time as an undergraduate was filled with my love for dancing and travel. Following graduation I moved to Salvador, Brazil for a year, where I taught English and studied Portuguese; and of course joined a dance group.

After this incredible experience I was eager to start my graduate studies at ASU. My dissertation research focused on the mechanisms and kinetics of DNA oxidation, which are implicated in mutation, disease and the ageing. One significant aspect of my work was that I had to acquire a wide range of skills ranging from multi-step organic synthesis, analysis of biological samples to investigations of complex kinetics using transient laser techniques. I was also very involved in the life of the Department as president of the chemistry graduate student council. I also had a unique teaching opportunity as the assistant organic lab coordinator, which involved overseeing 20+ teaching assistants, and nearly 600 students. I owe most of my growth as a scientist however to my advisor, Ian Gould, who was, and continues to be, an irreplaceable mentor, and in innumerable ways helped me to find my "equilibrium". The triumphal completion of my doctorate with President Obama's handshake was an unforgettable finale to my ASU journey.

Currently I am employed as a research scientist on a management track at Ventana Medical Systems, a Roche owned tissue diagnostics company. The interdisciplinary training that I received at ASU has been critical in allowing me to build bridges between the chemists, biologist, engineers, histologists, medical doctors and managers that I work with everyday. I am excited about this new and challenging opportunity to use and build upon my research experiences, and importantly to play even a small role in the quest to make a positive difference in lives of cancer patients and their families.

Oh... and I always remember to continue dancing.

Chenxiang Lin
Ph.D. in Chemistry, 2009
Current Career: Postdoc researcher at Harvard Medical School

My graduate career started in the spring of 2005, when I came to ASU to pursue a PhD degree in Chemistry. Attracted by the idea of using DNA as a nano-scale building material, and Dr. Hao Yan's strong publication record, I joined his laboratory immediately after my arrival. After the first week of excitement about my new life, I found myself facing two major challenges. First, I needed to improve my English, and second, I had to learn as much as I could about the research topics in the Yan lab, which were totally new to me. Fortunately, I was not alone; the department offered me all the help I needed to get me on the right track. Dr. Ian Gould made tremendous efforts to help me improve my spoken English; he corrected my pronunciation, taught me how to pass the SPEAK test, and most importantly, built my confidence so that I could talk with others in English without hesitation. Dr. Hao Yan and Dr. Yan Liu patiently taught me how to design simple DNA nanostructures, trained me in all of the basic lab techniques, and helped me with troubleshooting when I stared to work on my initial projects. With their help, I passed the SPEAK test after the first semester and my first publication came out after my first year. The smooth start made me believe that I was ready for more challenges.

My entire graduate career was never lacking in challenges, and I enjoyed working out the solutions to each one. Dr. Yan always gave me projects that allowed me to grow as a scientist. He is an incredibly creative chemist and he constantly fed me with novel and inspiring research ideas. He is also a great mentor who helped me learn how to turn original ideas into detailed research plans. He never let me rest on what I had already achieved, instead, he kept reminding me of the ultimate goal of the research and encouraged me to constantly think about the next step. As a result, my 250-page-long dissertation described a series of innovative and systematic studies on building self-assembled water-soluble nanoarrays for biosensing and the replication of artificial DNA nanostructures using biological methods.

I am currently at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow. In the future, I plan to stay in the academic world and perform interdisciplinary research that bridges the fields of nanoscience and biochemistry, with the ultimate goal of developing medical applications of nanotechnology in biological systems. My graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry & The Biodesign Institute at ASU allowed me to mature as a scientist and have prepared me well for my future career. In addition to the scientific knowledge and experimental skills, I learnt how to establish collaborations on and off campus, how to write research articles and reviews, how to give professional talks at conferences, and how to write grant proposals. These are the invaluable possessions that I gained in the fruitful and enjoyable journal that was my four and a half year graduate career at ASU.