Meet Sharon Haynie
| Occupation: | Principal Investigator, Dupont Central Research |
| Graduation Date: | 1976 |
| Major: | Biochemistry |
| Favorite Class: | Advanced inorganic chemistry and differential equations for physics |
| Student Activities: | Always worked at least two jobs |
| Current Activities: | Reading, the arts, basketball |
As you build your career, you are determining your way of life. A good salary is one important consideration because it will make your life easier, more comfortable. But your career can enhance your life in other ways as well, by providing a sense of purpose, intellectual challenges, and a feeling of achievement and satisfaction.
"Should you find yourself out of love with your current work, then take the risk and JUMP! FLY!—whatever it takes to pursue the things that really feed and nurture you."
When Sharon was a freshman, she had a work-study job in an organic chemistry lab. With her love for science and math, she says, "I was in seventh heaven! I was immediately immersed in the type of intellectual work community that I had only dreamed of."
And yet, those dreams were constantly challenged. Sharon says that employment prospects in the chemical industry were bleak in her college days. Several friends warned her to change her plans in favor of the more stable and lucrative medical profession. She says, "For probably a few brief moments in my junior year, I entertained this professon that held no appeal whatsoever as I faced considerable peer pressure to do the 'safe' thing."
"Thankfully," she says, "I'm very stubborn and I knew enough of myself and my passion to resist the lure. I have not had a single regret." Sharon went on to earn a doctorate in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked at Bell Laboratories for three years then moved to Dupont, where she has been a researcher ever since.
