Meet Edwin Gonzalez
“BioBuilder helped me decide my major in biology. Before that, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my career – I wasn’t even sure I was going to go to college.”
Edwin Gonzalez shares his journey from a BioBuilder apprentice to becoming a lead scientific support specialist at Thermo Fisher by age 23, highlighting how hands-on experiences and mentorship shaped his career path. Some of the highlights of this episode include how
- Edwin’s middle school science teacher sparked Edwin’s interest in science through engaging projects and supportive environment
- He is the first in his family to pursue science, without STEM role models at home
- Edwin joined the BioBuilder Apprenticeship program in 2019 after learning about it from a classmate (looking @you Kevin Fuentes!)
- He gained first hands-on lab experience learning aseptic technique, pipetting, PCR, and bacterial transformation
- His biodesign project was focused on creating a device detecting airborne allergens
- His BioBuilder experience helped him decide to major in biology at Suffolk University
- The skills he learned at BioBuilder created a foundation that made college coursework easier
- He landed his first industry position at Novo Nordisk through connections from a program at LabCentral
- Edwin currently works at Thermo Fisher as a lead scientific support specialist
- His role combines lab operations, facilities management and direct research support
- His key take-away: there’s so much to be gained if you explore multiple aspects of biology and build a diverse toolkit of experiences