Alum Returns to Share Expertise and Journey in STEM

Parker welcomed Zach Dookeran ’10, PhD, to campus to speak to Upper School Physics students at a series of morning meetings. He returned with one goal: giving students an inside look at exactly how one pushes forward within the STEM field after graduating from high school.

Dr. Dookeran is a chemical engineer by training, but throughout the years, he has morphed into a molecular biologist. He is currently working for Elegen Bio in the R&D department. His company builds DNA fragments for customers in pharma, agriculture and industrial biotech. His current major project involves expanding their product offerings to plasmid DNA, which are circularized and supercoiled and thus useful for certain downstream applications.

However, getting to this stage was not simple; Dr. Dookeran was determined to make things easier for Parker students by returning to campus and explaining “everything he wished he had known” after graduating from Parker and moving forward in STEM. He discussed his undergraduate experience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, his doctoral research at Arizona State University, his current job and why STEM/science fields are so important. He filled each part of his talk, not only with the details of his history, but, more importantly, with practical advice for the Upper School.

Dr. Dookeran’s drive to prepare these young minds who are about to go off to college was clear, and the students and faculty who listened to his talks greatly appreciated all he had to share. Parker thanks Dr. Dookeran for taking time out of his busy schedule in Chicago to connect his real-life experience with topics Upper Schoolers are learning in the classroom.

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