Her Story
About Namitha
I have been working in my field for 15 years, and I currently hold the position of Senior Scientist, a role I've been in for the past 5 years. After completing my master's degree, I entered academics and dedicated myself to research. I was fortunate to secure a couple of prestigious fellowships that allowed me to move around the globe and conduct my research. One of my proudest early achievements was receiving the Indian Council of Medical Research Fellowship, which is a very big fellowship in India for early researchers. From there, I secured the DAAD fellowship in Germany, and I was one among four people who got selected from India. That experience gave me global exposure and really shaped my career trajectory. I published several papers during my research years before transitioning into industry. I joined my current company in 2018 when I was back in India, and they later moved me to the U.S. with my current position as Senior Scientist. Working in advanced therapeutics, the U.S. is the leading market, and I wanted to explore that market and advance my career here. My work is lab-based, and every day I ask myself and my team how we can make the process better for people once it is out in the market. That question drives everything we do and helps reduce the burden of why we are working and what we are doing. I've been aiming to make a change in the field where I'm working, with the precision and aptness of what therapeutics is required for. What I'm holding currently is the biggest achievement I have earned in life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Namitha
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's not easy to be in a stable position if you're looking at it. This is more than a 9-to-5 job. We do this work because there's a purpose why we are doing this, and it's gonna drain a lot of time and energy from you, but the journey is worth it. At the end of the day, you will love it. You clearly need to make an effort, and interdisciplinary thought processes and the interests and structure of building a team and a process which is going to be helpful for the whole humanity is what matters. You really cannot run the world alone.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The bigger challenges right now is the transition from academics to the corporate business world. The bridging is quite translational, so people coming from academics are completely bound to that mindset that we have to go with the textbooks and the hardcover of how and why things are done, the questions and answers. But when you bridge that gap from business to market, it has to be flexible, and that is where I find a lot of people getting stuck and not being able to move forward.
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