LGC - Parisa Ghods, Ph.D.
Our Platinum Sponsor, LGC, is a global leader in the extended life science tools sector, serving customers around the world across various industries, including healthcare, applied market, research and government. With 175+ years of scientific heritage, combined with a track record of innovation, LGC provides mission-critical components to build Science for a Safer World.
If that is not enough to convince you that LGC is an employer of choice, maybe you will change your mind after reading this blog. Ahead of our Career Fair, Parisa Ghods, Ph.D., a synthetic chemist at LGC, has agreed to sit down with us and provide more insights on her job, work environment and what gets her excited about coming to work every day!
We work on a variety of projects, mainly individually and sometimes in collaboration with other chemists in the synthetic lab. Upon receiving the project files from the design group, we would start reading papers, doing some literature searches in order to improve or modify the available routes and sometimes just finding new syntheses for the experiment. Then we use all the knowledge to start experimenting, and by that, I mean we do reactions on different scales and work on the purification processes. As synthetic chemists, we treat each project as a new challenge because it provides us with the opportunity to work with lab instruments and gain new experiences. In the end, when the structure of the desired compound is fully characterized and confirmed, we complete the project file and submit the compound to QA or quality assurance lab, and they make sure that the compound meets all the specified requirements before sending that to clients. And we are working on three to four projects at the same time, which requires a lot of coordination, time-management, and you have to be very organized.
It's definitely more than three, but I would say curiosity, creativity and definitely commitment. You have to be curious, explore new processes, develop new methods, and just question things to solve the problem. At the same time, you need to work on communication skills because you will have a lot of chemistry questions for your colleagues, friends, and team leader at work. And then be creative. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. This is the science, this is chemistry, and I believe that there is no limit to learning. Explore new ways of thinking, and you will find the answer to your questions or discover something awesome. And the last thing is to be committed. I strongly believe that each project brings its own new sets of challenges that may be unfamiliar that require patience, adaptation and new learning. The passion and the dedication that you have will improve your performance and help you overcome obstacles and problems that come from work.
Mostly the nature of my job. I love organic chemistry, and, in my opinion, chemistry is life. The compounds, intermediates and impurities that we synthesize at LGC are used in pharmaceutical, research, government, food industry and other applied markets.
“Knowing that I can contribute to something positive and make a difference, even a tiny difference in science makes me happy, satisfied, proud and keeps me motivated. “
And this is beside the interactions I have with my lab mates on a daily basis because they are really fun to work with. In my opinion, these interactions can improve my performance and definitely my professional life at work.
I would say innovative, definitely diverse and somehow challenging. I like to work for a company that is innovating, improving, growing, and making progress, and I think LGC is that company. Our company provides all the rights and opportunities for all workers, regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, and so on. That's another reason I enjoy working there because I'm working with chemists from different cultural backgrounds, and it is really fun. Last but not least is having challenges at work, especially for a synthetic chemist. You want to be challenged because you can involve, engage, learn, and grow from it. And everyone wants to grow in the workplace. I think it's a very important question as you're studying for years to get the job that you like and if you don't like a work environment, I don't think you can survive.
I'd say definitely be eager to learn, stay inspired and positive, pay attention to details, be organized and patient. As a synthetic chemist, you carry out experiments, and when it comes to multistep syntheses of complicated compounds, you want to avoid any mistakes. It requires that you document each step of your work precisely. At the same time, work on your analytical and critical thinking skills. When you have the results in hand, you need to analyze them to see why it's not working, why it's not giving the results you expect, where is the problem, how to find and solve it. In my opinion, synthetic chemistry or organic chemistry requires a great deal of trial and error. Sometimes you are given projects that you work on for weeks and months. I had a project that I got results after eight months. And when you repeat the reactions, you need to go through the literature, change the conditions or reagents and find the problems, so you have to be patient.
“There will be a failure, and you must not give in.”