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ABOUT ABBOTT
Title: Senior Scientist
Age you knew you wanted to be a scientist: 9
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Keep asking lots of questions!
What's the coolest thing about your job? I get to find new things that no one has ever seen before.
What your favorite virus? Bacteriophage
The curious minds of today could lead to tomorrow's breakthroughs.
Mary Rodgers: Scientist, mother, colleague, wife, friend, driven by compassion and curiosity.
We are the Virus Hunters.
Title: Microbiology Front Line Leader
Age you knew you were interested in science and math: 12 years old.
How did you know you wanted to study STEM: I looked into engineering and it sparked my interest. I liked the creativity of the career and the different ways I could go with it.
Advice to your 11-year-old self: You're not always going to be in a room filled with people who look like you, but that's your time to shine.
Favorite class in college: Computer programming class called Decision Support Systems.
Title: Field Clinical Specialist
Age you knew you were interested in STEM: 12 years old, during treatment for an irregular heart rhythm
Advice you would give your 11-year old self: Be confident. Ask questions. Find work you are passionate about.
Favorite STEM class in college: Medical Imaging Physics. I wrote code for x-rays. It was so cool.
Dream job: Working with medical technologies, like I'm doing now.
Read more about Mackenzie Tannhauser.
Title: Director of Chronic Pain Therapy
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: During my undergraduate studies I wasn’t sure if I wanted to become a doctor or engineer, so I studied Biomedical Engineering. I loved both the engineering and anatomy/physiology coursework. Unfortunately, I witnessed a very serious bike accident on campus when I was 19, and realized that providing urgent medical care was not my path. After that, I was 100% committed to engineering and have never looked back!
Advice you would give your 11-year old self: Raise your hand when you know the answer and have no fear when you don’t. All is solvable through hard-work, perseverance and grit, and removing internal self-imposed barriers means ANYTHING is possible.
Electrical Engineering Fun Fact: Our Abbott neurostimulator implants are roughly the size of a double-stuffed Oreo cookie and have nearly 10X the memory of the Apollo 11 NASA guidance computer that was used to land on the moon.
Read more about Rebecca Wilkins and how she combines electrical engineering and medicine to create life-changing technology.
Title: Engineer
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: 15 years old.
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Be flexible. Situations change very quickly. They change unexpectedly. Being flexible gives you a better perspective and overall outlook. Find a way to have a positive mindset and approach to situations and you'll have better outcomes.
Favorite class in college: General Phonetics, taken while I was in an engineering class called Digital Signal Processing. The two complemented each other in really interesting ways!
How did you know you wanted to be an engineer: As a kid I was always doing arts and crafts. In high school I took Introduction to Engineering Design and the artistic elements of the class clicked for me. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to try engineering in different environments, like the Robotics Team.
Title: Retired Senior Vice President, Quality Assurance, Regulatory and Engineering Services
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: 17
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Study hard in school, especially in math and science.
Sand castles or snow forts? Snow forts every time.
Abbott's Corlis Murray wants young people of color to see they can succeed in STEM. #ILookLikeAnEngineer
Abbott's top engineer receives Advocating Women in Engineering award.
For everyone looking for the next industry-changing idea, read more here.
Title: Intern
Age you knew you were interested in science and math: 7 years old.
How did you know you wanted to study STEM: When I was younger I immersed myself in STEM content. I still have my astronomy books, charting and mapping the stars. I also did random science experiments from books I took out of the library.
Favorite science experiment: Put an egg and vinegar in a bowl. The vinegar eats away at the eggshell over a span of time and allows the egg to bounce.
Advice to your 11-year-old self: Keep going. It's going to be challenging, but that doesn't mean you're not going to be rewarded.
Dream job: Designing engines for Formula One race cars.
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: 14 years old.
How did you know you wanted to be an engineer: I want to help people. In high school, I was exposed to robotics and I wanted to combine the two. That's why I chose biomedical engineering. It combines medicine and engineering.
Advice to your 11-year-old self: I would tell her to be herself. I used to care a lot about other people's perspectives, but I've learned it's OK to be vocal about your passions and be comfortable with yourself and who you are.
Favorite class in college so far: Computer science. I went into that class thinking I wouldn't enjoy it at all, and I was really nervous. But it turned out to be my favorite class. I enjoyed the atmosphere. I was able to use information I learned in that class to help my mom with a computer course she was taking.
Title: Mechanical Engineer-Abbott Professional Development Program
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: High school
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Dare to try. Try new experiences and see if you like them. If you do, you’ve found your joy, but even if you don't you are one step closer to finding out what you do want.
How did you know you wanted to be an engineer? When I was accepted into a four-year Abbott-sponsored engineering program at my high school called Project Lead The Way. Each year covered a different discipline and involved numerous group projects. Meet Rosie Carrion
Role: Currently enrolled in Abbott’s High School Engineering Internship Program
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: 15
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: I would tell any 11-year-old girl interested in STEM that they should pursue that goal and prove to others that they are smart enough. There are a lot of times it will be hard, and people will doubt you, not believe in you or trust you, but you are going to prove them wrong.
How did you know you wanted to be an engineer? I didn't know that engineering was a thing until seventh grade when we went on a field trip to a college, shadowed engineering students and did problem-solving exercises. It was then I realized that some things I love, like math and science, could be made into a career. Meet Jomi Babatunde-Omoya
Title: Emergency Physician and Head of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania
Age you knew you wanted to be a doctor: 14 or 15 years old
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Make sure to value yourself and what you bring to the world. Keep your hope alive and continue to pursue your dreams no matter what.
How did you know you wanted to be a doctor? “Initially, I wanted to be an engineer, like my uncles. Once I reached class 5, we had our initial career development exam, where I was asked ‘what I want to be when I grow up.’ I wanted to write engineer but was unable to spell it correctly. Because I didn’t want to lose any marks on my exam for incorrect spelling, I instead wrote doctor.” Meet Dr. Upendo George.
Since 2001, Abbott and the Abbott Fund have worked closely with the Government of Tanzania to find sustainable solutions to critical healthcare challenges.
Abbott and Abbott Fund created the first emergency facilities and emergency medicine residency program in Tanzania.
Abbott's long-term partnership with the government of Tanzania has improved access to sustainable healthcare.
Title: Medical Director, Diagnostics
Age you knew you wanted to be a scientist: 16 for nutritional science and 28 for medical science
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Work hard and believe in yourself. Keep going. Persistence is key. You can do it!
What's your favorite brain food? Green tea and Pad Thai with tofu
We urge students to envision themselves as scientists and engineers.
We’ve inspired 280,000 future STEM rockstars through our STEM educational programs.
Board certified neurologist, licensed physician, registered dietitian and medical director for our diagnostics business.
Title: R&D Director (ADC Witney)
Age you knew you wanted to be a scientist: I always enjoyed mathematics from a young age but didn’t really think about it as a grown up career until I was about 17. This was the age when I reduced the number of subjects that I studied and focused more on mathematics. It was the age when I first studied statistics as a separate discipline.
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: My advice would be 'Carry on doing what you're doing'. I wouldn’t change anything about growing up, or the choices I made about studying and careers.
Favorite classic science experience: My at home probability experiments! I also had an inspirational teacher at primary school who taught me lots about the natural world. I particularly remember dissecting an owl pellet and raising indian moon moths from caterpillar to chrysalis to moth.
Her STEM career was a statistical lock. Now she's making FreeStyle Libre better. Meet Claire Bhogal.
Title: Manufacturing Process Engineer (Nutrition)
Age you knew you wanted to be an engineer: My second STEM internship with Abbott I realized this is where I truly want to be. It confirmed Engineering was where my true passion was. During the internship I experienced the real pleasure in getting to the root cause of problems in order to solve them properly.
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Don't give up when it gets hard. Stay focused. The solution is always so much greater than the struggle it takes to get there.
Favorite classic science experience: In high school Chemistry we played around with chemicals and equations a lot - reactions, explosions, etc. - doesn't really get any more fun than that. Those experiences stick.
She's been around Abbott since high school. She's seen a lot. She's ready to see what's next. Meet Sarah von Kampen.
Title: Associate Medical Director, Diagnostics
Age you knew you wanted to be a cardiologist: 20. Growing up I was quite alternative, and people thought I wouldn’t succeed in a field like medicine, let alone one as tough as cardiology - so I set out to prove them wrong
Advice you would give your 11-year-old self: Study - hard. Being a nerd will pay off. You are tougher than anyone knows.
What's your favorite brain food? Italian roast, very dark chocolate, black pudding (it’s an Irish thing).
Favorite class in medical school? Anatomy, of the heart in particular – an amazing organ that I get to do research on every day.
Read more about Gillian on her Expert's bio and about how she is helping advance heart attack testing for women.
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