What the Heck is Biotech?

Martha Greer Walker ‘23 started with an internship and finished with a book.

BY JIM GRAHAM

It started with a simple question Martha Greer Walker ’23 began pondering when she landed an internship at a research institute last summer: What exactly is biotech?

There’s the easy answer: Biotech integrates biology with engineering technology and is driving breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, agriculture and other areas. In the U.S. alone, revenues are projected to reach $193 billion in 2023.

But quick, simple answers aren’t enough for Walker, a Sixth Form student who competes on the varsity volleyball and tennis teams, is a debate captain, participates in several singing groups and is a member of the Young Women’s Club and GAINS – Girls Advancing in STEM.

Unable to find a good guide about the biotech field for college-bound students, she embarked on a quest for answers, interviewing two dozen employees and scientists at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a sprawling research park in Huntsville, Alabama, where she was a lab assistant last summer.

The result was “What the Heck is BioTech?” a 195-page book that Walker researched, wrote and self-published. At its heart are the in-depth interviews she conducted throughout the institute, which hosts more than 50 start-up companies.

“Like many students, I spend a lot of time thinking about my future,” Walker says, “and the world is changing so fast, especially in a field like biotech. So, I began wondering, ‘How do you prepare for a career or a job that may not even exist today?’”

Writing a book wasn’t on Walker’s radar initially. She only wanted to know if she should consider biotech as a potential major when she was choosing a college. And she had questions — lots of questions: How does the biotech industry work? What college majors and academic degrees are required? What kinds of jobs are there in the field, and which will be in greatest demand in five or 10 years? What do people in these positions actually do every day?

“I started by just emailing people at my internship,” Walker says, “and I was amazed that so many of them responded and that they took the time to let me interview them.”

Among them were CEOs and COOs, faculty researchers, product testing managers, microbiologists, lab technicians and entrepreneurs. Walker recorded, transcribed and condensed each interview — a process that took 10 to 15 hours per interview — thinking that she might turn them into a podcast.

“Something that I found really interesting is that everyone had a different path,” Walker says. “Some started out wanting to be doctors and ended up getting really interested in biotech research. Others came from a business or finance background, and they saw a gap in the biotech market and wanted to fill it. They came from every background you can imagine.”

As she learned about their experiences, Walker realized that she wanted to create something more substantive and cohesive. She hopes the book will appeal not just to students her age who want to learn about biotech careers but also to parents whose high-schoolers may be considering biotech-related majors in college.