6th Annual Dow Graduate Research Symposium Recap

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Dr. Mahesh Kumthekar
Dr. Mahesh Kumthekar, VP of Veritiv Corporation

The 2017 Dow Graduate Research Symposium was held on September 25, 2017 and was another great success.

CBE alumnus Mahesh Kumthekar, PhD, gave the keynote address. Dr. Kumthekar, who is the vice president of Veritiv Corporation, offered the following advice to graduate students:

  1. When speaking to people outside your field, talk about your research in the simplest terms to help maximize their understanding. A clear explanation will help convey the importance of your research.
  2. Build strong, meaningful relationships. Networking is more than collecting business cards - it's about building relationships and offering to help others without expecting anything in return.  
  3.  Try new things: Learning new things and exploring areas outside your comfort zone allows you to grow stronger and develop interests you might not even know you had before.

 

 

Dr. Mahesh Kumthekar
Dr. Mahesh Kumthekar delivers the keynote address at the 6th Annual Dow Graduate Research Symposium

 

Ten industry participants attended the event, including representatives from Dow (Tom Burns, Wenyi Huang, and Tina Killebrew), Exponent (Sean Dee, Jennifer Irwin), Exxon Mobil (Shwetha Ramkumar), Procter & Gamble (Fei Wang), Shell (Nihar Phalak), and pH Matter (Paul Matter). 

 

 

Lunch

 

Participants enjoyed a buffet lunch at The Blackwell Inn (above), followed by a reception in the CBEC lobby at the end of the day.

 

 

Reception

 

Following the event, attendees offered the following comments:

"Another fantastic symposium! Thank you so much for putting your efforts into organizing this!" -Wenyi Huang

Art Gooray: "I found the presentations and the poster sessions very informative and well done." -Art Gooray

"I very much enjoyed the entire day and I was very glad to participate. I think it was run very well." -Tom Burns

"I truly enjoyed spending the day with all the graduate students and learning about the cutting-edge research that all of you are driving. I was very impressed with the quality of work and dedication displayed in both the oral presentations as well as the poster sessions.The event was very well organized and certainly exceeded my expectations. Great job to you and your team at GRS!" -Mahesh Kumthekar

Thanks to everyone who attended, and of course to the Graduate Research Symposium Committee!

 

Dr. Kumthekar

-Pictures by Tapajyoti Ghosh