Drs. Patricia and Richard Komuniecki - Reflections from retirement
Dr. Patricia Komuniecki holds the title of Dean and Professor of Biology Emerita and Dr. Richard Komuniecki is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus. Before their retirement, Dr. Rick Komuniecki was the Joan L. and Julius H. Professor of Biomedical Research and Distinguished University Professor; and Dr. Patsy Komuniecki was Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. Both played instrumental roles for the expansion of research and educational programs in the Department of Biological Sciences, especially from 2000-2008.
"Retirement is a great time for reflection (and it gives you something to do between
doctor’s appointments). Recently, we’ve been reflecting on the changing nature of
doctoral education. When we began our careers at UToledo in the early 80’s, we focused
on training bench scientists for academic positions and stressed literature review,
data analysis and technical development. In fact, of our over 25 doctoral students,
only seven entered academia. Tom Campbell ('87), Michele Klingbeil ('96), Emilio Duran
('96), Wei Chen ('99) and Gareth Harris ('10) are professors at KSU, UMass, BGSU,
Duke and CSUCI. Sally Harmych ('02) is a Distinguished University
Lecturer at UToledo and Holly Mills (10) is section head for Advanced Science and
Math at United Charter Schools, NYC. In addition, three entered the pharmaceutical
industry and remained bench-focused. Julia Thissen Daum ('87) has developed a novel
nematode-resistant strain of soybean at BASF and Jinming Geng ('02) and Tobias Clark
('18) have focused on nematode immunological identification and vaccine development
at IDEXX and Zoetis, respectively. Finally, Robin Arnette ('99) and Vera Hapiak ('13)
are principal medical writers at NIH and Abbvie, and Mitchell Oakes ('18) is a veterinarian.
In contrast, most of our doctoral students have entered into science management/marketing positions at an array of pharmaceutical companies. For example: Lisa Vanover DeLuca ('88) - Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at Glycomimetics; Baisong Mei ('97) - Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Editas Medicine; Xinyan Huang ('02) - Vice President and Head of Biology at Neuro# Therapeutics; Elizabeth Rex ('04) - Director of Scientific Licensing at Jansen Business Development/Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine; Rob Hobson ('06) - Senior Manager at Recursion Pharmaceuticals; Katherine Kirsop-Smith ('07) - Regional Business Manager at Abbvie (UK) and Rachel Wragg ('10) Senior Manager at Enzo Life Sciences.
Clearly, the job market for recent UToledo cell and molecular Ph.D. graduates has expanded greatly since we began mentoring students 40 years ago. We encourage current doctoral students to develop and refine their career plans while at UToledo, and, in addition to becoming accomplished bench scientists, also acquire the additional skills essential in today’s changing job markets. These include the ability to write scientifically and speak with clarity, to gain competence with computers and data analysis, and to develop the interpersonal skills required to work in teams. In addition, we encourage multiple collaborations, active participation at as many meetings as possible and summer internships. Science today is a team game and scientific training understandably is needed at all levels of decision-making trees. So, decide where your interests and abilities fit best, develop the appropriate skill sets and go for it!"