April 12, 2023
Graduate students invited to career exploration panel with Graduate School Alumni Fellow
The Graduate School's 2023 Alumni Fellow, Kamesh Reddy Sirigireddy, will visit the K-State campus April 12-14 to interact with graduate students and faculty. Sirigireddy serves as director of vaccine development for Merck Animal Health.
Sirigireddy was one of the first recipients of the Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship in Molecular Biology, which was established 20 years ago by the Graduate School to recognize exceptional achievements in scholastics and research. His graduate work set the foundation for a very successful career. Sirigireddy, 14 years after graduation with his doctorate, works in the global animal health industry developing diagnostics, vaccines and platform technologies across multiple species and building high-performing teams.
Sirigireddy's first position was as a scientist with Newport Labs, Minnesota. Here he led the discovery research program, resulting in three granted patents and two USDA licenses. Then he moved to Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, where he held several roles, advancing up the career ladder. In these roles, he was responsible for managing large research budgets, leading research teams, contributing to the vision and planning of the next-level global R&D strategy, among others. He is currently at Merck Animal Health as director, biotechnology services, where he is building on his excellent skills in clear prioritization and vision guiding global teams to success.
Graduate students and postdocs are invited to learn from Sirigireddy's career success in a panel discussion, "Exploring diverse career paths: A panel discussion with professionals from industry and government," from 3-4 p.m. Thursday, April 13, in the K-State Student Union's Wildcat Chamber. Sirigireddy will be joined by representatives from the USDA and the K-State Career Center to share their experiences and guidance on successfully pursuing jobs outside of academia.
In addition to the panel discussion, Sirigireddy will share his experiences and discuss graduate student success and career development in several meetings with graduate student leaders, doctoral candidates, postdocs and graduate faculty.