The excitement of science

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Charbel Tengroth
Charbel Tengroth

In January, I took on a student making his diploma work with us. He’s had a pretty rough start due to trouble getting everything set up for his experimental work; purchase of equipment, solving practical issues with existing equipment, reading up on the field of study, etc. More or less what every student has to go through before getting some useful data out of their project.

Anyway! Yesterday was finally the day all the different pieces were brought together and it looked great! Houston, we have lift-off!

I wish I could post some pictures here already but that will have to wait a while longer while he assembles data for his thesis. Needless to say there was a spring to his step leaving the labs yesterday evening, and we all expect great things to come in the near future!

Stay tuned!

Viaje a El Salvador, una historia para compartir

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Maria Angelica Linton
Maria Angelica Linton

Visita a El Salvador, Noviembre 2009

Una historia para compartir…

30th Aniversario de la USAM

Hace aproximadamente 20 años deje mi amado país El Salvador, en busca de una oportunidad para aprender ciencias quimicas y tal vez de alguna manera poder contribuir aunque sea con un granito de arena al vasto e infinito territorio de la ciencia.   Gane una beca para estudiar en la Universidad de Rice en Houston, Texas.    Yo amo el lugar adonde ahora me encuentro y estoy orgullosa de ser ya una ciudadana americana que admira profundamente la fuerte base en que este país fue construido, sin embargo, no puedo olvidar que es a mi país de origen al que debo lo que ahora soy.

En Noviembre del 2009, tuve el gran orgullo de recibir el titulo de “Doctora Honoris causa en ciencias química de mi Alma Mater: “Universidad Salvadoreña Alberto Masferrer” durante la celebración de sus 30 años de aniversario. El Dr. César Augusto Calderón, rector de la universidad dirigió las palabras mas maravillosas que he oído y simplemente recibí un segundo empuje para continuar representando a mi país, mi cultura y mi Alma Mater lo mejor que pueda aquí en los Estados Unidos que es un país que da una oportunidad a todas las culturas por igual.  También me hicieron parte de la galería de “graduados distinguidos”.  Durante las semana de celebraciones, tuve la oportunidad de dar tres charlas: 
“Crónicas del descubrimiento de medicinas”, “Que hacen los químico medicinales” y una charla motivacional que titule: “Descubre tus talentos, sigue tus pasiones y abre una ventana al mundo”. Fue una oportunidad increible, el poder compartir conocimientos con estudiantes de las diferentes ramas.

Pero la parte mas emotiva es que hay una historia detrás de todo esto…  Es una historia que se remonta a 1982 que fue el año en que me gradué de bachillerato.  El Salvador estaba sufriendo la famosa Guerra Civil Salvadoreña (1980-1992), una guerra que había venido escalando desde principios del siglo 20 y que finalmente culminó con el derrame  innecesario de sangre.  Cualquier persona que estuvo presente en esas épocas puede contar cosas horribles que pasaron en esa década.  Todos eramos prisioneros de nuestros hogares, por miedo a pasar a ser parte de las tragedias diarias.

Ahora que tengo una hija adolescente, me doy cuenta que los adolescentes viven en su propio mundo.  Cuando yo tenia esa edad a pesar de las condiciones en las que se encontraba el país, lo único que podía pensar era en tener la oportunidad de ir a la universidad, coronar una carrera y hacer mi propia vida. Sin embargo, había un gran problema…La Universidad Salvadoreña, había cerrado sus puertas y muchos de sus estudiantes se unieron a las “causas revolucionarias” de la guerra.

Afortunadamente, varios líderes y catedráticos de las diversas ramas, entre ellos: el Dr. Amilcar Avendaño (Químico Farmaceutico), el Dr. Miguel Antonio Barrios (Odontología), el Dr. Cesar Augusto Calderón (Derecho) y otros, se reunieron en 1979 para discutir la necesidad de abrir una nueva universidad que permitiría a los jóvenes estudiantes continuar sus estudios superiores, de otra forma, el futuro del país estaría en peligro.  Yo personalmente considero gente como esta, verdaderos héroes del país porque arriesgaron todo y no tuvieron miedo de las adversidades del momento para proporcionar educación para progresar.  Por cierto este es el pensamiento central de la Universidad “Por la educación hacia el progreso”.

Como pueden imaginarse, la universidad al principio era un sencillo edificio con divisiones de madera, pero para alguien como yo quien lo único que quería era aprender, la infraestructura era lo de menos.

La vida es corta y el tiempo pasa rápidamente… el ir a El Salvador en Noviembre del año pasado, o sea 26 años después de haber comenzado mi primer semestre en la USAM, me ayudó a recapacitar que en la mayoría de los casos, el futuro no depende de que tan elegante sea la universidad a la que uno va, sino que depende de que tan duro  tiene que trabajar la gente para hacer que las cosas sucedan y que tan original tiene que ser la persona para ser diferente del resto.  Muchos de los estudiantes de la década de los 80’s, grupo al que llamo “generación de la guerra”, se han establecido en diferentes formas en la sociedad.  Muchos son los doctores de mis padres, otros los profesores de mis sobrinos y sobrinas, etc.

Estoy feliz de ver como El Salvador continua progresando a pesar de que todavía hay muchos problemas y mucha pobreza.  Me gustaría encontrar alguna forma para pasar conocimiento y construir colaboraciones entre países para que de esta forma el llamado “Pulgarcito” de América no se quede aislado del resto del mundo y se convierta algún día en un país en el que todos son educados y mas que todo un país en el que todos se respeten los unos a otros, sin importar la profesión u oficio.  Nadie se merece el tener que dejar la familia, y arriesgar sus vidas para venir a otros países a buscar trabajo para alimentar a sus seres amados. No hay muro que se construya que va a detener la inmigración ilegal.  La solución mas fácil aunque no las mas rápida, es la de ayudar a los países sub-desarrollados con educación, porque solo con educación estos países como El Salvador van a encontrar las soluciones para sus propios problemas.

Que piensan? Como se puede ayudar a los paises sub-desarrollados a levantar su conocimiento cientifico?

Trip to El Salvador…a story to share

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Maria Angelica Linton
Maria Angelica Linton

Visit to El Salvador, November 2009

A story to share…

30th Anniversary of USAM

About 20 years ago, I left my beloved country, El Salvador, in search of an opportunity to learn science and somehow to contribute with at least a little grain of sand in the vast and never ending territory of science.  I won an scholarship and had the opportunity to study at Rice University in Houston and I’ve been working at Pfizer since 1993.  I love the place where I am right now, I am proudly an American citizen who deeply admires the strong base this country was built upon, however, I cannot forget that I still owe my country what I have become.

Last November 2009, I had the great pride to receive a “Doctor Honoris Causa” recognition from my Alma Mater: “Universidad Salvadorena Alberto Masferrer” during the celebration of its 30th anniversary.  Dr. César Augusto Calderón, rector of the university spoke the most wonderful words I ever heard and it just gave me a second push in life to keep on representing my country, my culture and my Alma Mater the best I can in the United States which is a country that embraces all cultures equally.  I was also part of the gallery of “Distinguished alumni”.  During the week of celebrations, I had the opportunity to give three talks: “ Chronicles of Drug Discovery”, “What Medicinal Chemists do” and a motivational talk which I titled: “ Discover your talents, follow your passions and open a window to the world”.  It was a wonderful feeling to be able to share some knowledge with students form the various fields.

The most emotional part you see if that there is story behind all this…and it goes all the way back to 1982, when I graduated from high school.  El Salvador then was undergoing the famous Salvadorian Civil War (1980–1992), a war that had been escalating since practically the beginning of the 20th century.  Everyone can tell a story of the horrible things that happened during that decade.  Everyone was a prisoner in their own homes, for fear to the daily tragedies.

Having now a teenager daughter, I realize that teenagers live in their own world.  When I was that age all what I could think was in having the chance to go to the university to crown a career and have my own life.  However there was a small problem…the country university “Universidad Salvadoreña” had closed its doors and many of the current students it had, had join the “revolutionary causes” of the war.

Luckily, several big thinking personalities from the various fields, including: Dr. Amilcar Avendaño (Pharmacy), Dr. Miguel Antonio Barrios (Dentistry), Dr. César Augusto Calderón (Law) and others, were discussing back in 1979 on the necessity to open a new University that would allow students to continue superior studies. Otherwise, the future of the country would be in jeopardy.  I personally consider people like them true heroes of the country because they risked everything and were not scare of danger for the education and progress which by the way happens to be the University slogan.

As you can imagine, the University was a very simple building with wooden divisions, but for somebody like me who always loved to learn and just wanted to become somebody, it looked beautiful!.

Life is short and time pass quickly…going to El Salvador in November last year, that is 26 years after I started my first semester at USAM, helped me realized that in most of the cases, the future does not depend on how fancy the university building was, but rather how hard people are willing to work to make things happens and how original people need to be to be different than the rest.  Many of the students from the 80’s decade which I call “generation war” have established their ways into the society.  Many are the doctors of my family, other ones are the teachers of my nephews and nieces.

I am happy to see El Salvador continue to progress even though there are still so many problems and poverty. I really would like to find a way to pass knowledge and build collaboration between countries so that the so call “Lilliput” of Central America does not stay detached from the rest of the world and becomes some day a country where everyone is educated and mostly is well respected regardless of their job.  Nobody  should have to leave the family behind, risk their lives in order to go in search of a job to other countries to feed their families.  An easier solution than building ways to keep illegals away is to help the less developed countries with education because it is only with education that countries like El Salvador will find the solutions to their own problems.

What do you think? Any ideas?

If you want to learn more about USAM, go to: http://www.usam.edu.sv


Creating an environment for innovation

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Charbel Tengroth
Charbel Tengroth

Here follows some personal thoughts on how to encourage and promote innovation in the workplace.

Again, this is a topic on which there is written entire libraries worth of books, articles, workshop and course materials. On the other hand, this is something that is very sought after, yet hard to create.

So, here are my personal thoughts and recommendations for promoting innovation!

  • Perhaps most important is to make sure there are procedures in place to collect innovative ideas! Holding brainstorming sessions routinely is a great way foster innovative thinking. It also helps to train away the natural reaction to say “no”; the most common cause of death of innovative ideas.
  • Another important component is to have an organization that allows innovation work. In other words; if you have no time to set aside for innovations you will not innovate (some might choose to moonlight, but I consider that working outside the work environment and hence outside the scope of this rambling).
  • Supportive managers: an extremly important part of innovation are managers that support innovative work by setting aside time to do the work, that champions your ideas at review meetings, project meetings and so on, and managers that give you the monetary funds to carry out the work (if needed). A manager that says “no” will not only kill that particular idea, but might kill all innovative ideas that his/her organisation want to put forth. On the other hand, a manager that says “yes” not only gives an idea the opportunity to grow and blossom, but also create a fertile ground for new ideas to be put forward.
  • Reward innovation: this is really a given if innovations are sought after. Within Pfizer manufacturing each site has the opportunity to hand out innovation awards every quarter for teams and individuals. This is a good example of fostering innovation by example; the awarded colleagues are rewarded for their good work, quite a few awards are handed out every year, and the awardees may function as innovation champions locally.

So then, how to say “yes!” to a preposterous idea? First of all, don’t assume you have all the answers, resist the urge to say “no!” and let your colleague present his/her case. Try to formulate questions in order to address the weak(est) points in the idea, as well as those designed to highlight the strength(s). This might help the innovator to sharpen the idea, as well as avoid obvious pitfalls.

If you’re still not convinced, say “yes!” conditionally. Try and formulate a minor study designed at testing the basic premise of the idea together with the innovator. Again, this will help making the idea into something concrete and measurable. If you at this stage still can’t get around making a significant investment, ask the innovator to make do with less resources: a computer model, scale-down version, mock-up, etc.

Always make the innovator enumerate the benefits of the idea, that that in time savings, monetary savings, increased yield, revenue, etc. This will help you gauge the ROI and the risk of supporting the idea.

Always include failure of the idea as a probable outcome, because many if not most will fail.

Finally, being able to help and foster innovation is much more fun than saying “no”!

A recent article titled “An Update Regarding Follow-On Biologics”

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Libbey Yates
Libbey Yates

Many issues in the debate over allowing “follow-on” or “generic” versions of biologics and biotechnology drugs are well presented in an article titled “An Update Regarding Follow-On Biologics.”  I’m curious to hear reactions of others to this article.