Interdisciplinary Ph.D. student and IDSC Vice President seeks non-traditional career after obtaining her degree

Harika Vemula is the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Student Council Vice President and a student in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry. As IDSC VP, she connects with students and professors from different disciplines.

“IDSC works with SGS to help make graduate school experience at UMKC the best it can and offers travel grants to graduate students to present their work at conferences,” she said. “My favorite part in IDSC is the Community of Scholars symposium which is growing big every year. It is a representation of all the disciplines at UMKC and students come forward to share their work at this event.”

This is Harika’s fourth year in the IPhD program.

“Each and every semester had its unique experiences and challenges,” she said. “I keep small deadlines which I can achieve and this is the driving force for my continued interest in my work. Apart from my research, I also actively participate in extra-curricular activities which relieved me from stress.  I stand at a point where I successfully completed my qualifiers and working towards my graduation.”

Harika said she chose UMKC because of its state-of-the-art equipment and because of the option of working in multiple disciplines in an interdisciplinary program.

“The IPHD program especially in Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of the best programs at UMKC,” she said. “From the beginning, I always had the habit of connecting and interlinking things. When I learned that I could do a PHD interdisciplinarily at UMKC, this was my first choice.”

Harika intends to graduate in summer 2016. She believes her degree will prepare her for any and all challenges in her career.

“Along with my research skills, I got a chance to polish my leadership skills at UMKC,” she said. “Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program, I can work and collaborate with different disciplines without any intervention.”

During her time at UMKC thus far, Harika has enjoyed working with her advisor, Dr. William Gutheil.

“He helped me learn from my mistakes and gave complete freedom to express my thoughts and ideas,” she said. “I cannot think of my research skills and progress without his guidance and support.”

For her dissertation research, Harika is focusing on resistance to antibiotics.

“I want to develop a mathematical model which can analyze the slightest changes in bacterial cell wall upon the addition of antibiotics,” she said. “This will be useful to understand the regulatory mechanisms in bacteria and to treat the bacterial infections without developing potential resistance.”

After graduation, Harika says she is open to all academic and industry opportunities that would allow her to enhance the skills she has gained.

“But, having laid a strong foundation in interdisciplinary research, I’m passionate about non-traditional career paths,” she said. “I want to see myself as an Editor in research journals like Science, Nature. These kind of jobs are fun as I can learn about new things every day and importantly, I don’t need to narrow my research focus.”

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