180 months of outreach

Jul 20, 2025

A few weeks have passed since our time in the city of Boston, a biotech hub which we’ve been to many times over the years with our team from ICPD. We typically arrive a few days early to prepare for the SMDP training sessions and to recalibrate on our progress. This was a notable year (it even felt different).

It’s been 15 years since we formed ICPD, the non-profit organisation that for years has paired incredibly talented young scientists and engineers with industry mentors. Like most of what I’ve worked on over the past two decades, SMDP was not a program I sought to establish. SMDP found me... I remember the Chair of our Biology Dept at my undergraduate university campus encouraging me to apply for this “special program” all those years ago! Never could I have imagined that the program would lead to my first internship, and then a full time job as a scientific researcher for the formulation of drugs - nor did I envision myself immersed in crystallography in a cutting edge laboratory in the United States. 

In 2010, I left my bench job to focus on salvaging the program that preceded SMDP. It was really a leap of faith, as I didn’t know how we would make it happen. I remember sitting with the Vice President for HR (of the company that employed me at the time) and explaining why we needed to support more students like me. “Make it happen” was his response... “just go out there and make it happen, but figure out how the program will grow!” And with those simple words of encouragement the roots were set. That one conversation enabled us to support our first cohort of 20 SMDP Biotech Scholars. We hosted the first SMDP Biotech training session in 2011. And this year, we welcomed an inspirational cohort of 99 SMDP Biotech Scholars.

If there’s anything we have come to know over the years, it’s that much can change  and we cannot predict what the future will bring. One thing that does remain constant is our firm commitment to supporting more students through mentorship and professional development, preparing them for success in the biotech, medtech and consumer healthcare industries.

I am especially grateful in 2025 for all the mentors that continue to show up year after year for SMDP, and to the incredible industry leader who sat across a desk from me all those years ago and said YES to supporting our first SMDP scholar cohort.. he may never know the reach and impact of that one decision he made. I am thankful to my colleagues at ICPD who EVERY YEAR bring the same commitment and energy to enriching programming for our talented young SMDP scholars. After 180 months of outreach, preparation and planning, each year still feels as significant as the first…