Jeff and Q (pronounced ‘Q’) Carpenter (if you really want to know, her name is Carol).
4734 West Wind Trail
Eagan, MN 55122
[email protected] (Seize the twelve!!!)
Assistant Director of Patents and Technology Marketing at the University of Minnesota.
Two children. Jefferson, age 9, and Mikyla, age 7.
Personal History, etc.
I spent the first half of my adult life becoming over-educated while being under paid, and the second half just being under paid. When I finished high school, I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life. I did know one thing … I had taken ‘College Prep’ courses at Centura, so I was going to college. So off I went to Lincoln, where I took up something called pre-forestry. I came from Colorado after all, and had always kind of liked forests and nature and that sort of thing. Pre-forestry means you can start at Nebraska, but have to finish someplace with a real forestry school that will teach you to be a real forester. So off I went to Missoula, home of the University of Montana Grizzlies (this is where I met my wife, though at that time she was still my roommate’s girl friend (-: ). I spent summers working for the Forest Service, which meant a lot of fun and adventure since I was a grunt, but it didn’t look like much fun for the upper level people. I decided I didn’t want to be a forester. After finishing my B.S. degree (you know what B.S. stands for), and while Q finished her degree, I continued on at UM and got a Master of Science (M.S. = More of the same) in forestry, so I could do scientific research instead of bureaucratic stuff.
That was when I learned about the emerging field of molecular biology. It was really cool, cutting edge scientific stuff, but I didn’t have any idea how to incorporate that into my finely tuned career plans. My solution was simple: more education! So Q and I packed up, and off we went to Minneapolis, home of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (can anyone tell me what a Golden Gopher is?). I spent five long, arduous and (dare I say it) fun years working on my Ph.D. (piled higher and deeper!). When all was said and done, I was a geek in a lab coat! Uh … I mean scientist … yeah, that’s it … a scientist! Only problem was, being a scientist is a lot of fun when you’re a grunt at the lab bench, but didn’t seem to be so much fun when you advance and have to spend most of your time managing other scientists. (I think I’ve heard this song before.)
By then, Jefferson was born, and I wanted to do something to make the world a better place. So, I veered left off of the career path, and off we went to Washington, D.C. (dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a road map), where I worked as an aide for Minnesota’s Senator Wellstone (who is about as ‘left’ as they come). I was the ‘expert’ on all aspects of science, the environment, and energy policy. I also got to brush up on my diaper changing skills, since Mikyla joined us about a year after I started. Two kids and low pay don’t add up very well, so I decided to get a real job. I joined a start-up (gulp!) company in Pennsylvania (did I say real job?), which relocated shortly thereafter to the Minneapolis area. It was still a low paying job, but at least I got stock options - that’s where the real money is!!! Wrong. The company struggled along, and continues to do so. But I got tired of waiting for the pay-off, and have moved to my current job. Now I help commercialize technologies developed at the University of Minnesota. I work with university scientists, patent attorneys, and business people, figuring out how to patent technologies and get them developed into commercial products (e.g., new drugs, new devices, new crops). It’s a fun job, but it seems as though the fun diminishes with advancement …
One good thing about this job is that I get the great perk of going home every day in time for dinner. Therefore, I have time to be soccer coach (so far have done K-2nd grade for both kids), ride bikes and play with Jefferson and Mikyla, help Q with her flower garden, and take up new hobbies (my current favorites are mountain biking and wood carving, and I’m going to try learning to speak Russian and play the fiddle). In my spare time, I’m a consultant for start-up companies, helping them prepare business plans and raise money to get started. Maybe for my next career move, I’ll start my own.