Exploring Careers in STEM 2025

Away from the Bench

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Sualyneth Galarza, PhD is the Global Associate Medical Director of Hematology, Nephrology, and Transplant at AstraZeneca Rare Disease. She leads global medical strategy through collaboration with local, clinical and commercial teams, scientific experts, and patient communities, focused on advancing innovation in complex diseases. She earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering from UMass Amherst, where her research centered on oncology and biomimetic models, exploring how extracellular matrix composition influences cancer progression. During her time at Eli Lilly, MilliporeSigma, and Sanofi, Sualyneth contributed subject matter expertise to support product commercialization, marketing strategy, and medical operations. Her career bridges medical affairs, R&D, and commercial strategy driven by curiosity, purpose, and a commitment to translating science into impact.

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Ajay Kumar, PhD is a Data Science Manager at Deloitte, which provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services for a diverse range of clients.  He earned his PhD in Neuroscience and Behavior from UMass Amherst, where he developed a keen interest in data science and how to apply his doctoral training to this field. After graduating, Ajay worked as an AI/ML Engineering with GSK, a global biopharma company before moving to his current role at Deloitte.

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Michael Lu-Diaz, PhD is a Technology Specialist at Wolf Greenfield, an intellectual property law firm. He received his PhD in Chemistry at UMass Amherst, where he studied the role of dopants in organic semiconductors. During his PhD, he worked as a summer intern at Wolf Greenfield, where he joined full-time after graduation. As a patent practitioner, he reviews invention disclosures, drafts patent applications, responds to communications from the US Patent Office, assesses the patentability of technology, and determines the risk of patent infringement. He also assists patent attorneys with legal research. 

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Andrea Silva-Gotay, PhD is a Medical Writer and Consultant at Whitsell Innovations, Inc. (WI), a fully-remote, woman-owned company specialized in medical writing, quality control review, and electronic regulatory submissions. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience and Behavior from UMass Amherst, where she studied the neurobiological effects of adolescent alcohol drinking on the developing brain. Andrea began her career at the bench, as drug discovery Scientist with Kineta, Inc. (formerly Yumanity Therapeutics). Through that work, she became interested in how medical writing supports the drug development process and transitioned into medical writing via the WI internship. In her current role, Andrea supports global clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries with regulatory writing, clinical and safety documentation, and publications.

At the Bench

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Laura Castellanos García, PhD is a Scientist (Analytical Development) at Tessera Therapeutics, a company known for its pioneering gene writing and gene editing technologies. Laura earned her MS in Chemistry from Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colombia) and her PhD in Chemistry from UMass Amherst. 

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Ritam Das, PhD is a chemist and formulation scientist with over six years of experience in nanoparticle drug delivery, pharmaceutical process development, and translational research. He currently serves as a Technical Development Scientist at Genentech (following the integration of Poseida Therapeutics), where he focuses on scalable process development for lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platforms supporting clinical-stage programs. He received his PhD in Chemistry from UMass Amherst, specializing in lipid–polymer hybrid nanoparticles and targeted nucleic acid delivery. During his PhD, he completed an internship in early formulation development at Eli Lilly and Company, with a focus on novel delivery systems for CNS therapeutics. His work integrates chemistry, materials science, and pharmaceutical development to advance next-generation therapeutic technologies.

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Jill Graham, PhD is a Senior Scientist at Sanofi, a global biopharma company. After earning her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UMass Amherst, Jill joined the genomic medicine unit at Sanofi, where she has contributed to the characterization of cell and gene therapy products by mass spectrometry (including protein post-translational modifications and cellular proteomics, lipids and oligonucleotide analysis). 

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Christopher Hango, PhD is a biomaterials scientist at Generate Biomedicines, where he develops droplet microfluidic technologies to enable ultra high-throughput screening workflows for protein therapeutic discovery. He received his PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from UMass Amherst, where he conducted research on polymeric mimics of cell-penetrating peptides for intracellular protein delivery. Prior to joining Generate, he was a materials scientist at Foodberry, developing edible biopolymer coatings for food applications. His work spans microfluidics, polymer chemistry, and bioassay development, with an emphasis on translating biomimetic design principles into functional materials.