CCNY alumni return for Merck Info Session and Networking Event on Sept. 28

Alumni Gennady Khirich '07 and Stephen Ma '11 return to The City College of New York for the Merck Info Session and Networking Event hosted by the Career & Professional Development Institute, in the newly formed Office for Experiential Learning, on Thursday, Sept. 28 from 12:30-2 p.m in the North Academic Center Flex Space. 

Undergraduate and graduate students in biology, chemistry, translational medicine, physics as well as majors in biomedical, chemical and mechanical engineering are all welcome.

“The Career and Professional Development Institute is honored to be hosting CCNY alumni from a multinational pharma company like Merck,” said Rhea D. Faniel, senior associate director for diversity recruitment and employer relations at the Career & Professional Development Institute. “Our alumni are an integral part of helping CCNY students gain access to career opportunities with industry leaders, a win for the company and the college.”

Khirich, an associate principal scientist at Merck, was a physics major and graduated in 2007. He more specifically is an NMR Spectroscopist in the Digital & NMR Sciences Group within the Analytical Enabling Capabilities Organization and believes going to CCNY for his undergraduate degree was one of the best decisions he has ever made.

“Not only did I receive a thorough and world-class foundational education in the physical sciences for a fraction of the cost of private universities, but I was also exposed to cutting edge research in computational biophysics in Professor Marilyn Gunner's group,” said Khirich. “This experience played a pivotal role in my subsequent decision to pursue a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry and represented the first steps towards realizing my goal of becoming a professional NMR spectroscopist.”

Ma is an associate principal scientist at Merck and graduated in 2011 with his chemical engineering degree. He credits CCNY with setting the tone for his career and appreciates the strong mentorship from the professors and graduate students, which provided him with opportunities to develop his research skill set. 

“As a freshman, I remember approaching Professor Kretzschmar to develop inverse structures for dye-sensitized solar cell applications. Through her guidance, I also obtained a summer REU in China working on surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy through a collaboration with Professor Lombardi in the chemistry department,” said Ma. “Ultimately, it set me on a path to pursue my PhD and my subsequent career working in R&D, first at Intel, and now at Merck.”

There will also be a small team of Merck scientists (half of whom are CCNY alumni) from various organizations within the company. Students will have the opportunity to chat with the scientists about the diversity of career paths at Merck with one-on-one meet-and-greet sessions from 2:15-4 p.m. RSVP here.

About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi (now Lightcast) puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.