{"id":965,"date":"2014-04-29T11:33:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T18:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/?p=965"},"modified":"2015-04-07T11:49:38","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T18:49:38","slug":"what-can-you-do-with-a-science-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2014\/04\/what-can-you-do-with-a-science-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"What can you do with a Science Degree?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oregon State University Chemistry alumna Dr. Karen Nickel discussed the many uses of a science degree from clinical chemistry and biochemical genetics to molecular diagnostics and more on May 12 at 3:30 pm. Numerical ability, problem solving, analytical skills, and written and oral communication are highly valued by employers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Oregon<\/a>

Chemistry alumna Dr. Karen Nickel<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt has been wonderful to be involved in the clinical laboratory testing for several decades,\u201d said Nickel.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI have seen changes we never would have imagined \u2018back then!\u2019”<\/p>\n

“New technologies provide real opportunities for young scientists to make a meaningful contribution to the diagnoses of diseases and dysfunctions.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nickel\u2019s had an early interest in clinical endocrinology and healthcare so she focused on obtaining the education and credentials necessary. She received her B.S. in chemistry (biochemistry) from OSU, her M.S. in biochemistry and her Ph.D. in biochemistry\/analytical chemistry both from Kansas State University. Her postdoctoral training was in clinical chemistry.<\/p>\n

All that time in the lab gives you more transferable skills than you might think. Lab work can build skills in teamwork, time-management, data gathering and processing, critical thinking and computer software modeling.<\/p>\n

Although Nickel began her career teaching college biochemistry courses, she transitioned into clinical chemistry after several years in education. Her background in chemistry offered her insight and a unique perspective to explore many areas of science as well as medicine, education, business and law.<\/p>\n

After 22 years of working in clinical laboratories, she again transformed her science career and became chief of laboratories for the California Department of Health Services for nearly 20 years where she was responsible for shaping state and federal laws regarding clinical labs and personnel, blood and tissue banks.<\/p>\n

The practical skills developed in the lab have helped Nickel\u2019s throughout her career. She was able to take advantage of opportunities along the way to make a tremendous impact in the field of chemistry, including biochemistry (clinical research), public health, education (teaching, continuing education, training and licensure examinations), law, business (laboratory management, budgeting, operations and personnel training).<\/p>\n

Nickel leveraged her clinical research experience into a passion for a host of laboratory and laboratory personnel issues, providing advice on diverse program areas, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Blood banks,<\/li>\n
  • Tissue banks<\/li>\n
  • Cytology laboratories<\/li>\n
  • Public health laboratories<\/li>\n
  • Accredited and non-accredited clinical laboratories,<\/li>\n
  • Laboratory licensure<\/li>\n
  • Laboratory fraud<\/li>\n
  • Federal law (CLIA)<\/li>\n
  • Personnel licensure<\/li>\n
  • Continuing education and training programs<\/li>\n
  • Examinations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Nickel \u00a0broke many gender barriers in the chemistry field, both as a graduate student in the 1960s and professionally.\u00a0\u00a0She had an exceptional career that spanned more than four decades as a clinical chemist in addition to serving as national president of the American Association for Clinical\u00a0Chemistry (AACC).<\/p>\n

    Nickel continues to uses her experience to mentor and encourage young science professionals.\u00a0\u00a0Now retired, Nickel still serves as a consultant in public health to the state of California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Oregon State University Chemistry alumna Dr. Karen Nickel discussed the many uses of a science degree from clinical chemistry and biochemical genetics to molecular diagnostics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[645351,640793,1168293],"tags":[2477],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-and-friends","category-ch","category-student-success","tag-women-in-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6vHeb-fz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11585,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2019\/07\/biochemist-blazes-trail-for-women-in-stem-and-creates-scholarship\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":0},"title":"Biochemist blazes trail for women in STEM and creates scholarship","author":"debaunk","date":"July 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When alumna Karen Nickel (Chemistry, \u201961) returned to campus after a long and illustrious career in clinical chemistry, the trip \u201cbrought back lots of good memories.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni and Friends","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/alumni-and-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2019\/07\/Karen-Nickel.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2475,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/10\/osu-chemistry-alumna-to-deliver-college-of-science-distinguished-lecture\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":1},"title":"Distinguished Lecturer addresses next generation plastics","author":"nayaks","date":"October 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon State chemistry alumna and Texas A&M chemistry professor, Karen Wooley ('88) will deliver the College of Science Distinguished Lecture on November 4, 2015.","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni and Friends","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/alumni-and-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of alumna Karen Wooley","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2015\/04\/wooley.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":934,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/04\/spotlight-karen-wooley\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":2},"title":"Alumna spotlight: Karen Wooley ’88","author":"Sharon","date":"April 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Chemistry alumna Karen Wooley\u2019s (\u201988) exemplary academic career began at Washington University and continued at Texas A&M University.","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni and Friends","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/alumni-and-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of alumna Karen Wooley","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2015\/04\/wooley.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2542,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/11\/a-strong-community-of-science-fall-2015-distinguished-lecture\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":3},"title":"A strong community of science: Fall 2015 Distinguished Lecture","author":"Sharon","date":"November 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Check out the photos from our Fall 2015 Distinguished Lecture featuring chemistry alumna Karen Wooley who discussed the next generation of plastics.","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni and Friends","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/alumni-and-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2015\/11\/Distinguished-Lecture-24.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2015\/11\/Distinguished-Lecture-24.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2015\/11\/Distinguished-Lecture-24.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2015\/11\/Distinguished-Lecture-24.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1220,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/04\/in-memoriam\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":4},"title":"In memoriam","author":"Sharon","date":"April 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Melissa M. Schultz: Gone too soon","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni and Friends"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni and Friends","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/alumni-and-friends\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of Melissa M. Schultz","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2015\/04\/melissa-photo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8365,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/11\/phd-students-awarded-arcs-foundation-scholarships\/","url_meta":{"origin":965,"position":5},"title":"Ph.D. students awarded ARCS Foundation scholarships","author":"nayaks","date":"November 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The College of Science is delighted to have two doctoral students among the 24 young scientists and engineers selected as 2017 ARCS Foundation Oregon scholars.","rel":"","context":"In "Chemistry"","block_context":{"text":"Chemistry","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/departments\/ch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/files\/2017\/11\/Sean-B-pic-e1510169142567.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":969,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}