Ep 61: The Love Language of Organic Chemistry - The Journey

In this episode we continue our conversation with Arianne Hunter, a Senior Scientist at Abbvie, on how her journey led her to a love of organic chemistry and a career in industry. Growing up Arianne, describes herself as a really nerdy kid, who adored PBS kids, and enjoyed exploring the world through her toy microscope. As she grew up and learned more about different career opportunities, her interests bounced from orthodontia to food chemistry. Once she attended Dartmouth College, Arianne was presented head on with the rigor of organic chemistry and gladly accepted the challenge of the course as a chemistry major. The experience opened her eyes and solidified her goal of becoming a chemist. Following her undergraduate studies she received a SMART Scholarship from the Department of Defense, which supported her graduate studies at University of Oklahoma, and allowed her to work as a civilian scientist in the forensics field. Things were going very well for Arianne, but she always had this vision in the back of her mind of going back to academia; this led her to complete the two post-doctoral fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and California Institute of Technology (CalTech). As she neared the end of her fellowships, Arianna found herself at a crossroads–should she continue on the route of becoming a professor in academia, or should she try something new and jump into industry. Of course, she chose the latter and initially felt torn by the decision because it was at odds with her passion of giving back to the community and supporting first-generation students and minority women in STEM. “I had to come to the conclusion that not every decision is a permanent decision,” Arianne explains. She now sees that with her role in industry as a female scientist she can still inspire and influence the next generation of women in science. To hear more about Arianne’s career journey, check out the latest episode.      

Tune into this episode to hear Arianne discuss:

• The winding road and experiences that led her to a career in chemistry
• What it means to “not be the hero”
• Influential mentors who guided her career choices, including mentors from her days as an athlete 
• How she envisions her successful self, with a smile

Reach out to Arianne:

LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariannehunter/ 

Instragram - @dr.arihunter

If you enjoyed this episode, also listen to:

• Ep 46: Connecting the Dots between Theory, Physics, and Mathematics - The Journey
• Ep 27: From Post doc to Assistant Professor - The Journey
• Ep 16: Storm Chasing and Forensics - The Journey 

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