New Video Highlights Transformational Power of MBP

Masood Qader (MBP '16) knew he wanted a career in medicine, and he figured that meant he would work with patients.

Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP) helped him realize there were far more opportunities available.

"My intent, or purpose, behind the medical field was direct patient care," Qader said in a new MBP video. "What MBP helped me realize is that there's hundreds of people involved along that process."

Today, Qader is a manager at ZS, a management consulting and technology firm. The company's mission is to bring together data, science, technology, and human ingenuity to improve life and how we live it. It's a vision that resonates with Qader, who's worked at the company since graduating from MBP.

Qader is one of several alumni featured in the new video that highlights what makes MBP unique and how it prepares students for career success.

"The Master of Biotechnology Program at Northwestern is designed to provide our students with a curriculum that touches every aspect of biotechnology," MBP director Danielle Tullman-Ercek said in the video. "Whether you're interested in going to regulatory science and being involved in policy development, doing bench research, working in the venture capital world and investing in entrepreneurs, all of those careers are possible with biotechnology, but they require knowledge of both the biology as well as the engineering."

The broad range of possibilities available to students is what drew Weronika Ptaszek (MBP '24) to the program.

"Biotechnology intersects all fields," Ptaszek said in the video. "Engineering, business, biology, public health — whether you have a clear path of what you want to do or you're coming in with a sense of uncertainty, the program is designed for everyone."

MBP offers students extensive opportunities to conduct laboratory research while learning about current industry practices. Students are also able to complete an internship or co-op that allows them to apply lessons learned in the classroom to a real business or research institution.

The opportunity can be an eye-opening learning experience.

"In high school, I was really interested and excelled in math and science and was always interested in medicine, but didn't know if I could quite commit," Katherine Radwanski (MBP '07) said in the video. "There are so many different career paths that the students could go down, and they don't even know about them until they get the experience to liaise with some of the companies nearby."

Radwanski is asset strategy leader for oncology at pharmaceutical manufacturer Abbvie. She also is a member of the program's Industrial Advisory Board (IAB). As an adviser to the program, Radwanski helps ensure the curriculum prepares students with the skills needed in the workforce.

Some of those skills are technical in nature, but a large emphasis is placed on critical thinking and communication. The combination makes for a program that has a lasting impact on its students and alumni.

"The program was transformative for me,' Ptaszek said in the video.

That is the type of feedback that means the most to Tullman-Ercek.

"My favorite part of my role in the Master of Biotechnology Program is interacting with the students and watching them grow," she said in the video. "It just is so incredible to see not only what they go and do, but the people they become and all of the people they are able to impact with their work."