Jasna Despot

I moved to the United States in the 1990s as a refugee and started college right away. I was always interested in STEM and knew I would either be a doctor or a scientist. I tested out of many classes and was able to get two bachelor's degrees at the same time, one in biology and one in chemistry. I worked on the Human Genome Project at Washington University, where we were pioneers in the genomics industry. This was groundbreaking work that took 13 years and cost millions of dollars to map and sequence one human genome, and I'm very proud to have been part of that in the late 90s and early 2000s. After the Human Genome Project was completed and NIH funding stopped, I used my chemistry degree to enter the pharmaceutical industry where I worked in hardcore chemistry, advancing from Chemist 1 to Chemist 2 to Senior Chemist over 11 years. I then returned to the genomics field when it was completely revolutionized and was proud to work with CRISPR technology, which won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Jennifer Doudna and her partner from Spain. After so many years, I wanted to grow even more, but I knew it would be limited as a senior scientist, so I switched to the commercial side of things where I could connect with the end users of our products. I've been on the commercial side for 4 years and have been extremely successful. For the past year and a half, I've been working in the nuclear energy sector, specifically next generation nuclear energy, which is what I find most fascinating about my current work. This is not traditional nuclear energy but part of the nuclear renaissance being driven by data centers and their need for energy. Next generation nuclear energy is safe and clean with no carbon footprint, and I've been accused of being very passionate about it.