Based on personal experience, Nina Dudnik highlighted the lessons learned and transferable skills gained when moving from academia to beyond the bench at the 2015 Naturejobs Career Expo in Boston.

Contributor Diana Cai 

Nina Dudnik, CEO of Seeding Labs, shares her thoughts on transferable skills at the 2015 Naturejobs Career Expo in Boston.

As a teenager, Nina Dudnik, now CEO of not-for-profit Seeding Labs, was fascinated by agriculture and genetics. After graduating from Brown, she spent several years working with scientists in developing countries on agricultural development projects. This included spending a year in a rice research lab in Ivory Coast. There, Dudnik was struck not only by the innovative scientists she met but also by the sparseness of the lab. There was only one PCR machine, and scientists had to wash and reuse equipment like pipette tips. Other labs she visited in Africa were in similar conditions. When she returned to the US to begin a doctoral program at Harvard, a wealth of resources was available to her. Dudnik started using her spare time to collect unused lab equipment and send them to researchers in need of them. This was the beginning of her path to what is now Seeding Labs.

Reflecting on her journey, Dudnik scoffs at the idea that careers other than academia are considered “alternative”. Continue reading →