Ben - Chemistry Manager
Name:
Ben
Education:
Bachelor (Chemistry)
Job title:
Chemistry Manager
Department:
Chemistry Department
More than generating results
"Before, I worked at a company that was strictly an analytical laboratory. Careerwise what I was looking for was something that was more not just generating results but actually connected with what was going on in the company. ...I've found that I can apply my abilities as a chemist to a wide range of problems, in and outside of the laboratory."
Problem solving
"For me it seems that there's always some new project coming along. Either there's a new requirement or we're changing a document. Corporate requirements change and we have to figure out how to implement them at our site. Sometimes working with another group, we need to do testing to support their process, figure out what type of testing they need, how we do the testing to get the answers they need and answer the questions they have. There's more to it than just getting a result on a piece of paper."
"What we do impacts what happens to the product before it is produced because we test some of the materials that go into the product that makes it up. While the product is being made, we do in-process testing to see that everything is going OK. And we test samples of the final product to make sure that they meet quality control requirements, so that they're safe and effective."
Interactive experience
"I've taken a trip over to Denmark. It was interesting to go over and see what their perspective is, both from the perspective from being analytical chemists and just from meeting other people from another culture. It's interesting because we're all tied together. We really all have the same goal in mind, which is to produce the best quality insulin on the market."
Meeting goals
"You want to find a way to get the insulin tested in a timely manner, in a manner that satisfies the customers. Internally, we don't want customers waiting on a product and externally we want people to have insulin to take. So you want to be able to do it in a timely manner, you want to be able to do it at a reasonable cost and you want to have a system that can allow you to test enough of it at a time."
Fresh perspective
"I think working at Novo Nordisk has given me much more perspective on the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. ... Here if you get a result it may mean that something is going on in the production process or something needs to be changed or improved somewhere else in the company besides just what's going on in the chemistry laboratory."