Nick Edwards - Career Decisions in Academia and Industry

Nick Edwards, PhD is currently the Chief of Staff to the CSO at Resilience, a privately-held manufacturing and technology company devoted to building a sustainable and accessible biopharmaceutical supply chain. When we interviewed Nick, he was working in the Global Sales Operations division of Illumina, an American public biotech company that manufactures a wide array of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. He completed his PhD in neuroscience through a joint program at the NIH with Brown University, where he studied the neuronal circuitry underlying cocaine-induced behavior. Nick is also the creator and host of the Once a Scientist Podcast, where he interviews scientists from a broad range of backgrounds about their careers, to serve as a resource for researchers and young scientists. We discuss Nick’s background and PhD journey, highlighting important insights and lessons he learned along the way. We also discuss his path from academia to his role as a consultant for Boston Consulting Group, and how that prepared him for his career in industry. Nick also describes the motivation behind creating his podcast, and provides advice for early-career scientists about how to navigate their own unique career journey. Hosted by Roshan Chikarmane and Jenna Glatzer.