9 minute read
Alumni News
Qiao Zhang, Ph.D., (Ph.D. ChE ’18), was awarded the 2021 American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship. With this award, he will study how cellular force, which is transmitted by the LINC complex, the protein complex associated with both inner and outer membranes of the nucleus (LINC complex), to the nucleus, could contribute to the early development of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Zhang will use Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome as a model system.
Dr. Zhang’s research interests focus on testing novel approaches to differentiation iPSCs to endothelial cells, finding out how preexisting adaptive immunity to Cas9 proteins could affect CRISPR-Cas9 based gene therapies in human muscular dystrophy, and identifying how abnormal cellular and nuclear force distributions could contribute to cell or tissue dysfunctions in Hutchison Gilford Progeria Syndrome.
Dr. Zhang is originally from Guangzhou, China. He received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2009, and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2018. He is a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University in the lab of George A. Truskey, Ph.D.
The American Heart Association is one of the largest funding organizations for cardiovascular medical research.
Marissa Dockendorf, Ph.D., (Ph.D. ChE ’05), Executive Director, Head of Global Digital Analytics & Technologies at Merck & Co. Inc., presented to students in the Department of Chemical Engineering about her career progression through industry.
Dr. Dockendorf has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 14 years and at Merck for 10 of those years. She has a background in pharmacokinetics (Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic PK/PD) modeling. She’s participated in many cross functional drug development teams and provided pharmacokinetic and pharmacometric expertise and scientific oversight for a number of discovery, early, and late-stage drug development programs across multiple therapeutic areas, with particular focus in the areas of cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, and ophthalmics. She plays a critical role in innovation projects at Merck Research Laboratories aimed at transforming the way clinical trials are conducted, including use of emerging technologies and use of outpatient sampling in clinical trials.
In her current role as Digital Health Portfolio Lead, she works with project teams to develop and implement strategic plans for use of digital health solutions in clinical programs to address key drug development questions. Dr. Dockendorf received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida.
Dockendorf Talks Career Progression in Drug Development
Q: What was the best aspect of your experience at UF CHE?
I had such a wonderful experience as a graduate student in the CHE department that it is hard to pick a “best.” I worked on an interesting Ph.D. project, had many opportunities to publish and present my research, and left grad school well-prepared for my career ahead. I also made some of my closest friends to this day during my time there!
Q: What is your favorite memory of your time as a student?
I have so many fond memories from my time as a graduate student. I actually met my husband in a class at UF! One moment that I often reflect on that may be more relevant for current students is related to an Intro to Engineering class I used to TA. In that class, I would give a presentation about chemical
engineering to undecided undergraduate engineering majors, which included discussion on how chemical engineers were the “universal engineer,” with many different possible career paths. At the time I didn’t realize how true that was! My own career path has not involved taking what would be considered “traditional chemical engineering” roles, and I know many people who are chemical engineers by training that are now working in a variety of different areas. It has been wonderful to see what I used to lecture on play out in practice in my own life!
Q: Who influenced you during your time at UF?
My graduate research advisor, Dr. Anuj Chauhan, has and continues to be a great mentor to me. During my time as a graduate student, he helped me to develop my research, experimentation, and modeling skills. Beyond the technical aspects, he encouraged me to present my research in various symposia and conferences and hone my presentation skills. He also helped me to find a summer internship during my time as a student that later helped land me a job at that same company, and provided me with a lot of career advice, both during my initial job search as well as throughout my career.
Q: How did this time influence your career?
During my career I have worked in pharmaceutical R&D in the areas of quantitative pharmacology & pharmacometrics, ocular drug delivery, and now digital medicine. My experiences at UF really opened my eyes to many different possible career options. It was during my graduate research that I worked on developing a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model and first became aware of the field of pharmacometrics as a career path. I also learned a lot about ocular drug delivery from my advisor and others in my lab, which is a field in which I also later worked.
Q: How have you stayed connected to the Gator Nation? I have many friends from my time at UF that I keep in touch with and a few that have ended up working at the same company as me (Merck & Co. Inc.). I have been a recruiting ambassador for my company and enjoy meeting others from the Gator Nation at conferences (back when they were in-person), and I can’t wait to do so again when conferences return to being in-person!
Q: Have you faced a challenge in your career and how did you overcome it?
One of the challenges I faced was of a more personal nature. My husband and I had the classic “two body” problem in trying to find two Ph.D. level jobs in the same location. My husband found a job in California, and after having worked at another company I wanted to return to Merck & Co. Inc. in Pennsylvania. I asked about remote work as a possibility, and fortunately, had a very supportive supervisor that hired me back and allowed me to work remotely from California. I ended up working remotely for over 10 years, first from California and later from Florida. I’m very grateful that my company supported this remote work arrangement and I have learned that it is best to simply ask for what you want to enable your success and work/life balance.
Q: What advice do you have for current students?
Use this time to learn and explore various things you are interested in. Take advantage of opportunities to get involved in the wider scientific community and seek out mentors that can help you navigate your job search and offer career advice. Take every opportunity you have to present your research findings and develop your presentation skills; the GRACE symposium is a great forum for this! Most importantly, enjoy the journey, pursue a career path that you are truly excited about, and don’t be afraid to change jobs or even career paths to suit your personal and professional needs.
THE SHROFF FAMILY CREATES A LEGACY OF GIVING
After graduating from the University of Florida in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, and then earning his master’s in engineering and an MBA, Jayant Shroff worked for 10 years in R&D jobs at Fortune 500 companies including Bell Labs, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and ExxonMobil Research and Engineering. His professional career in the U.S. spans over four decades and he has held many executive positions. He married his best friend, Dr. Yogini Shroff, a practicing physician. Both emigrated to the United States in the 1960s, and together they enjoyed growing their successful careers.
The Shroff family is focused on mentoring young people to be leaders through Shroff Family Foundation scholarships in Chemical Engineering at University of Florida and Engineering college scholarships at Sarvajanik Education Society in Surat, Gujarat. The Shroff Family also co-founded Yuva Pragati, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the impoverished rural youth of Gujarat, India. At home in Metuchen, N.J., the Shroff’s community service involves board membership at a local senior center and food bank. Q: What is your favorite memory of your time as a student? In 1964, I choreographed an Indian folk dance called Raas from the state of Gujarat in India for an international dance competition. We had eight participants who had no idea about dancing. It required a lot of improvisation. Anyway, we came first among 10 entries! I will never forget the moment when the judges announced the winners. At midnight, we all went out for ice cream to celebrate. These outings brought a lot of joy.
Another memorable day was in the spring trimester in 1965, when I was called into Dr. Charles Hukaba’s office. Dr. Hukaba offered me a graduate assistantship at Drexel University for a master’s degree in chemical engineering. Dr. Hukaba had accepted the position of Department Chair at Drexel beginning in the Fall 1965. I was overjoyed with this unexpected offer and decided to accept it.
I was quite shy when I first enrolled at UF. However, by the time I graduated I developed confidence in my abilities, acquired excellent communication skills, and
Shroff Family Photo, Left to right standing: Dr. Viraj, Radhika, granddaughter Ashima, Jay, grandsons Tilak and Anay, Son-in-law Ojas. Left to right seated: granddaughter Urvi, wife Dr. Yogini, son-in-law Seth, and grandson Santosh. Jayant Shroff in 1963
Jayant and Dr. Yogini Shroff
enhanced my critical thinking and analytical skills. This confidence helped me to be successful throughout my professional career.
Q: What advice do you have for current students? Success is 90% hard work, 5% intelligence and 5% luck- being in right place at the right time. Focus is another dimension for success. Capture every opportunity you get and explore it to best of your abilities. Be kind and humble, help others, it will give you a lot of joy and fulfillment in life which any amount of money cannot give. The bounty will come back to you some day. This is from our own experience of more than 40 years of giving.
Q: What impact do you hope your gift has for UF ChE students? We have always believed that education is the first step toward transformation and success in life. And we are very proud that we got an opportunity to assist young people in achieving their dreams. a lot of wealth and resources to being kind, respectful to each other, being a good citizen and concentrate on being happy and content. In the schools we support, we teach these qualities to children at an early age and call it “VALUE EDUCATION.”
Q: What makes you most proud? Our desire and ability to help more than 100,000 children with no means in remote villages of India acquire good education, become valuable citizens, and achieve economic independence.
For the past 25 years or more all celebrations (birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, new job offers, etc.) in our family have started with appropriate donations to a worthy cause. Our daughters celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary (we did not want a big party) by building a large assembly hall in a residential school for children of migrant workers in the village of Wanghadhra in Gujarat, India.
With the equal support of my wife Yogini and daughters Viraj and Radhika, our son-in-laws Ojas Mehta and Seth Bair, and few like-minded friends we have embarked on this mission since 1982.
