Gigi Lin
Ph.D. ‘17
Chemical Engineering
Academic advisor: Professor Gerald Fuller
What have you been up to since Stanford?
After Stanford, I first worked as a product development scientist at Clorox for a few years, developing everyday cleaning and disinfecting products for well-known brands. It was a perfect job for a new graduate, and I gained much in terms of on-the-job training in professionalism, practical colloids research, and in understanding the business processes that transform ideas into products. Of course, I loved being able to test out our scientists’ product prototypes before later seeing them on store shelves and recommending favorites to friends and family.
From there, I moved to an agricultural startup called Apeel, where I worked in R&D on edible plant-based barrier products that target food waste by extending the quality and life of post-harvest fruits and vegetables. It may seem like an entirely different industry, but many core interfacial sciences and hydrodynamic concepts that we learn in chemical engineering are applicable to solving diverse problems. Working there, I explored manager and technical roles, worked closely with incredibly smart, friendly, and motivated individuals, and scratched the surface on complex yet stimulating problems in sustainable materials research & development. The entrepreneurial environment at Apeel also fostered my interest in intellectual property and technology transfer, which is a field to which I’ve recently transitioned.
What’s your fondest memory about your time at Stanford?
Two things, my community within Stanford and the outdoors trips. I formed several very strong friendships both in my research group (the Fuller Group) and in a community service group I volunteered with on campus. Gerry’s lab was internationally diverse, and we’d receive a steady influx of visitors, including from Morocco to Switzerland. The lab was a magical place for fostering the exchange of technical ideas and cultural immersion. One memory is from the summer of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. At the time our lab had representation from staunchly football (soccer) loving regions of the world, and so the air was rife with tension during the Semi-Finals, as we had both members from Germany and Brazil hoping for victory!
During graduate school, I also joined a hiking group local to the broader Peninsula area, which was then a gateway to backpacking and exploring terrains within regional, state, and national parks. I’ve come away with a more expansive appreciation and gratitude for the natural beauty of the area.
Can you share any advice with our current students or postdocs?
Keep an open mind to people and ideas while keeping personal goals as a compass. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to plan and optimize your life for linear success, but that can create brittleness and lack of resiliency when situations don’t unfold exactly to plan or as personal situations unexpectedly change. One analogy might be - sometimes you don’t realize that you actually need a screwdriver instead of a hammer for a nail. This perspective on the long goal has helped me reframe situations as hidden opportunities to experiences or learning skills, or for identifying when I need to make an important change or decision in my life.
This article is part of the Department of Chemical Engineering Alumni Spotlight series designed to highlight the impact and trajectory of the work of our alumni. Stanford University does not endorse any non-Stanford entities, programs, products, or services listed in the article.
