Career Talk to Focus on Science Information Management

Students are invited to attend an inspiring career talk, I was a Rider Freshman and Now I Manage and Interpret Science Information, on Thursday, March 22. The informative session will feature Rider alumni Dr. Maureen Maguire ’75 and Dr. Susan Vazakas ’78, who both work in the field of science information management.

Maguire and Vazakas will speak about careers ranging from scientific data management and experimental design to corporate librarianship and statistics. It will all take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching & Learning, Rooms 310-311. Free pizza will be served.

Maguire is the Carolyn F. Jones Professor of Ophthalmology and vice chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania. Maguire received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Rider and was inducted into the Rider Science Stairway of Fame in June 2011. She holds a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from The Johns Hopkins University.

Maguire has served on and chaired several data and safety monitoring committees and is on the editorial board of the journals Ophthalmology and Cornea. She has more than 125 publications in the areas of ophthalmology and clinical research, and has also participated in the design and implementation of many NIH studies through the National Eye Institute.

Vazakas, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Rider, is a science librarian at The Johns Hopkins University. She received Ph.D. in Bioethics from Boston University, a M.L.S. in Library Science from Simmons College and a M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts.

Prior to Johns Hopkins, Vazakas worked as a project manager and corporate librarian for Kevric Co., a private environmental engineering/management firm. She has also held the title as the librarian for Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy at Boston University’s Science and Engineering Library.

“I think math majors and biology majors with an analytical mind might find something of interest in my talk,” Maguire said. “I did not make a straight line to biostatistics and will probably hit upon actuarial science, physics for the Goddard space program, computer programming for pharmaceutical companies, computer programming for public health programs, epidemiology and biostatistics at both the M.S. level and the doctorate level. As a freshman, I had no idea what was involved for any positions and stumbled through them until I found my niche!”

The Career Talk series, sponsored by the office of the Associate Dean for Science, is designed to provide science majors with insights into science career possibilities beyond the lab, classroom and hospital.