Career Choice interview with Bingran Cheng
Name: Bingran Cheng, PhD
Position: Senior Research Scientist
Affiliation: Viridian Biometals
Location: Pasadena, CA, USA
Pronouns: She/Her
Please briefly describe your current role in your position.
Developing microbial solutions to extract metals from marine and terrestrial ores in an environmentally friendly way at an early biotech start-up.
What is your terminal and/or current position in academia?
PhD
How did you hear about your current position? Was it a career option that you were aware about during your educational process?
In fact it was my education that brought about my awareness of my career. Through my graduate studies, I encountered the amazingly diverse ways in which microorganisms interact with their surroundings. I became intrigued by the multifarious potential of applying ‘microbial solutions’ to human problems. I wanted to explore Biotechnology outside the pharmaceutical industry. During the final stages of my PhD I utilized my resources. I reached out to mentors and colleagues for advice and recommendations I could pursue while actively looking for opportunities in the ‘biotech for sustainability’ space. I searched through online job postings and explored biotech companies of varying sizes across different fields, as well as the different positions that were available.
How did you end up working at your current affiliation?
I learned about Viridian Biometals (formerly Impossible Metals) from one of my mentors in graduate school, Dr. Ken Nealson, who co-founded the company. I was excited by the core technology and the positive change it might bring to the mining and energy industry. My background in marine microbial ecology and biogeochemistry aligned perfectly with what the company was looking for in a research scientist. I applied for the job and fortunately was offered the position. I started part-time and eventually transitioned to a full-time role a few months later when the company raised enough capital.
How long have you been working at your current affiliation?
2+ years
What type of position is your current job?
Hybrid
Is your role more a managerial or individual contributor role?
Individual Contributor
What are the defined roles of your position?
When I first joined the company we were a small team at a very early stage of development. At that time, we adopted an all-hands-on-deck approach in the R&D process. Over time, the research projects diversified and our team grew, which led me to focus more on data management and analysis. Currently, I’m also tasked with developing a machine learning model to predict experimental outcomes.
What are your day to day tasks that you perform in your position?
In the early stages, my day-to-day tasks were not very different from working on a thesis project: literature research, designing experiments, conducting bench work, doing data analysis, reporting and discussing results with the science team and occasionally with potential investors. Now that my work is mostly data-focused, I spend more time in front of a computer, maintaining a postgreSQL database for the team to easily access all previous experimental data, or writing python codes for data analysis and modeling work. I summarize and deliver my findings bi-weekly to inform experimental design and guide research directions.
What do you like best about your job?
I love that our technology is scientifically sound but technically challenging. The unknowns fuel my curiosity and the knowns maintain my sanity when things don’t always work out the way as expected.
What do you dislike about your job?
I think it’s a common thing with industry jobs: building external collaboration is generally more difficult due to intellectual property issues.
If your job is outside of academia, what is similar and what is different about your current job and your terminal position in academia?
It’s mostly similar in its procedural process, specifically the aspect of scientific research. Essentially, the process of forming the question to designing and performing experiments then eventually yielding an analysis is the same as in a University research lab. The difference is that you are not always afforded the same level of freedom in exploration. In academia, a detour from the original project is mostly encouraged and brings about novel discoveries whereas in biotech startups, these side ventures are generally curbed, usually due to limited resources and partly to ensure that the main objectives are met in a timely fashion.
How did your microbial ecology (or academic) education prepare you for your current position?
The most important thing I took from my microbial ecology education is the comprehensive view towards complex systems and the different approaches we can use to study these systems - knowing we may never fully understand the whole system. I’ve arrived to interpret it from a Gestalt-esque perspective: the whole is not simply the sum of all parts. Within any ecosystem, there is a dynamic balance that’s constantly adjusting with any minute modifications to the system. I truly find its mystery beautiful.
What skills do you wish you learned during your educational process that would better prepare you for your current role (e.g. machine learning, management skills, etc.)?
I would say that most technical skills you would be able to learn on the job and it’s hard to predict what might be required of you as the company grows and your role changes. I wish that during my educational process I learned more about what my unique strengths are, what I enjoy doing and how to look for or even create jobs that fit me well, rather than trying to fit myself into a particular job description.
Do you have any recommendations and/or tips for early career microbial ecologists looking for jobs similar to yours?
I think BioTech/CleanTech start-ups are great places to be if you enjoy doing research with defined objectives and deadlines, solving problems creatively and working with a higher level of autonomy and flexibility than big companies. If you are interested in a particular field, try reaching out to companies, establish some collaborative/consultation-based relationships and gain some experience before entering the job market.