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ACS President-Elect Visits BYU

Oct. 25, 2012

Marinda Li Wu, president-elect of the American Chemical Society, gracefully accepted an invitation from Dr Wayne Anderson to come to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at BYU on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 22 and 23, 2012.

Dr. Wu and Dr. Hasan Tahir (from the Career Department of the ACS) arrived Monday evening, met at dinner with officers of the ACS-Central Utah Section (Matt Asplund, Chair; Daniel Austin, Chair Elect; Jennifer Nielson, Councilor; and James Patterson, Past Chair) and attended a Monday night magic show given by Professor Steven Wood, who used to work with Wu at DOW Chemical.

After Wu delivered an autobiographical lecture titled “Turning Challenges into Opportunities: A Personal and Professional Journey into the 21st Century” on Tuesday morning, she and Tahir taught a series of career workshops. The titles of the workshops were 1) Job Search Techniques, 2) Interview Skills, and 3) Resume Writing. On Wednesday, students were able to make appointments to meet one-on-one with Tahir to critique their resumes.

As the title of Wu’s seminar suggests, her career path from her birth in Pasadena, Calif. to being elected ACS president in 2013 is less like a straight line and more of a journey. Throughout her life, she faced several life- and career-changing choices that led her through jobs in industry research, marketing and sales and entrepreneurship.

“Sometimes people ask me what my career plan was,” Wu said. “I didn’t really have one. I had no idea I’d be here today. I just worked very hard, had passion for what I was doing...”

The daughter of Chinese immigrants who were also both professors in scientific disciplines, Wu’s decision to work in industry research and development for DOW was a little different. As a child, she dreamed of being a scientist or an ambassador.

“I eventually combined these two dreams,” Wu observed, referring to the many instances in her life where she was- and in other cases, still is- called upon to represent chemistry.

There was the time when she was involved in the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma as an undergraduate at Ohio State University, where “I was pretty sure I was the only chemistry major – I didn’t fit the stereotype.” There were all those times when she first got involved in her local ACS section, chemistry and honors societies; the time she worked as an environmental advisor for DOW, which exposed her to the public relations side of the company; her community involvement through “Science is Fun!” (a company Wu co-founded that organizes hands-on science activities for children); and, of course, her election to the head of the world’s largest scientific organization.

Wu concluded her remarks with a quick summary of life lessons she has learned: be confident in your choices. Learn from your experiences. Refrain from judging – you don’t know others’ circumstances. And finally, be happy with you.

This year marked Wu’s third visit to BYU.

As a note of interest, just before he left the department, Dr. Tahir was surprised to see a picture of Dr. Morris Robins, professor emeritus, hanging in a display case in the hall. Tahir related that he was a student of Robins when he was at the University of Alberta, Canada.

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Matt Asplund, chair of the ACS-Central Utah Section, introduces Dr. Marinda Wu prior to her seminar Oct. 23.

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Dr. Hasan Tahir co-taught a series of career workshops with Dr. Wu and reviewed resumes with students for ACS Career Day.

By Jessica Henrie

Contact

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
C100 BNSN
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah 84602
801-422-3667

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