West Virginia Universitys C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry will hold a career exploration program today (April 8). The 15th annual C. Eugene and Edna P. Bennett Careers for Chemists Program is at 7:30 p.m. in the Erickson Alumni Center with a reception to follow. The event is free and open to the public.
Speakers are WVU alumni and include:
Kelly Harris, supervisory counterfeit specialist for the Secret Service
Christopher Ferguson, former global director of sales for Cytec Industries
Jennifer Sutton, strategic marketing specialist for Thermo Fisher Scientific
A WVU graduate with degrees in chemistry and forensic and investigative science, Harris is the supervisory counterfeit specialist for the Secret Service. She is responsible for overseeing the laboratory that conducts all forensic examinations for the U.S. Treasury. One of her duties is conducting physical and chemical examinations of genuine and counterfeit currency while providing technical expertise to Secret Service field offices in support of counterfeit investigations.
Additionally, she participates in scientific working groups to discuss currency-related issues and assesses security features and design considerations for future generations of U.S. currency.
Harris received a Master of Forensic Sciences degree from George Washington University.
Ferguson, a 1971 WVU grad with a bachelors degree in chemistry, retired as a global sales director with Cytec, a mining technology company. He maintains his involvement in the mining chemicals industry as a consultant.
He formerly worked as a chemist at Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., and during the first 10 years of his career, he worked in product development and technical service capacities, primarily interacting with fiber producers and textile mills. He also held a sales position at Imperial Chemical Industries in which he dealt primarily with the pharmaceuticals, confectionary, cosmetics and toothpaste industries and was general manager of the metal extraction products business for Zeneca Ltd.
Sutton is a strategic marketing specialist for Thermo Fisher Scientific who earned a bachelors degree in chemistry from WVU and a doctorate from the University of Virginia. Her current role is focused on proteomics research, assisting the direction of software and its application development.
She has an extensive background with mass spectrometry and its use in the study of biological diseases. During her graduate research, Sutton explored the use of mass spectrometry for analyzing cells found in multiple sclerosis and skin cancer.
The C. Eugene and Edna P. Bennett Careers for Chemists Program is made possible through the generosity of C. Eugene Bennett and Edna Bennett Pierce and the Bennett Family, which established the C. Eugene Bennett Chemistry Program Enhancement Fund, the C. Eugene Bennett Graduate Fellowship Program in Chemistry and the C. Eugene Bennett Academic Enrichment Endowment through gifts to the WVU Foundation.