Anurag Patnaik (’12)

Product Development Lead, Ceres Nanosciences

I graduated with an engineering degree and joined a Biopharmaceutical company (Biocon Limited, Bangalore, India). I worked as a Senior Analyst for Quality assurance and cGMP compliance teams during my two and half years at the firm. Work was challenging, but it became very evident that I needed a higher degree if I had to grow further. I took the GRE and started looking at different Master’s programs in US and European universities.

Georgetown’s one year MS Biotechnology program stood out from the rest. First it was an intense one year program, and I could get back to work without taking a long break. Second it offered a nice mix of business as well as science courses.

I applied to Georgetown University and was accepted to the program for the Fall Semester, 2011. The program offered very good networking opportunities, a wide selection of course work, and provided a great platform for team work and peer to peer learning. I graduated in the beginning of summer in 2012 and received a job offer from Ceres Nanosciences, at the Georgetown graduate poster presentation event. Eventually, I became the Product Development Lead for a team of specialists and research associates working on different projects for the federal agencies. Recently I have taken up an interesting assignment with Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University as a Visiting Fellow/Instructor, where I work closely with their faculty and train their researchers in Nanotechnology based applications. Working in both industry and academia has given me an opportunity to understand the intricacies involved with technology transfer. This one year program imparted the knowledge and training required to be successful in my career.