When Nuri Shakir was 17, he went from a home-school program at the end of his junior year to Middlesex Community College in Massachusetts, where he earned his GED. He had always been interested in math, science, and engineering, so he enrolled in a mircrobiology program. He also took supplementary classes in engineering, economics, English literature, and French.
Nuri was offered internships at biotech companies while he was in school, but he decided to be a full-time student instead, interning as a lab technician in Middlesex's microbiology department. His job gave him hands-on experience in his field — prepping clean rooms, identifying critical bacteria, and ordering parts and products for growing tissue.
At 19, Nuri graduated with an Associate of Applied Science degree. Because several New England biotech companies recruited at his community college, Nuri had a job offer as soon as he graduated. His internship prepared him for a seamless transition into a job as a certified microbiologist, working in a lab and helping grow tissue for skin grafts.
Four years later, Nuri supervises the media prep room, overseeing entry-level microbiologists. On any given day in his lab, Nuri and a team of biotechnicians suit up in special sterilized white suits to ensure sterility in the cells and tissue that go into creating biomedical products. Technology allows microbiologists to be extremely precise, eliminating harmful bacteria and ensuring that a given product contains the right balance of ingredients.
Because biotechnology is still new, the learning curve is high for Nuri and his colleagues. "The skills I learned in school more than prepared me for my job," Nuri says, "but I love the challenge of being in a field where you have to keep up with new information all the time."