As well as being a maker and creator herself, Emily Mabin Sutton is helping other scientists make their ideas reality.
To say Emily Mabin Sutton has her fingers in many pies would be an understatement. The 23-year-old is a biotechnologist, science commercialiser, jewellery maker and all around awesome woman.
Just before we talked Emily was cooking up another pie to put her finger in, by attending RailGirls weekend where she built another cat photo delivery platform. She loved the weekend and the support that was given to ladies learning to code.
But first and foremost she is a scientist. Emily did an undergrad degree majoring in molecular biotechnology at Otago University - as well as a minor business, which she followed with a Masters of Entrepreneurship.
While at Otago she helped set up SciCO (Science Community of Otago) so science students could befriend each other and put on events. I’m told their first ball, with a film noir theme, was a huge hit.
Emily has combined this love of science with an interest in commercialising its outputs. She knew that she wanted to mix the worlds somehow. Spurred by the thought of what would actually happen with the research involved in a project she was working on, she got to thinking about real world business applications for her biotech background.
The answer was Formed — jewellery that combines the beauty of biotechnology with wearable art. Getting its start at Startup Weekend in Dunedin in 2013 Formed has raised money through PledgeMe to get it off the ground while she was doing her Masters. Emily says nature provides us with many beautiful designs from fractals to the blooms she is looking to produce, and capturing them in jewellery is one way of showcasing the role microbes play in all our lives.
Now helping others commercialise their research what Emily does for a job. Doing market analysis for Viclink, she works with scientists, researchers, and other experts to translate their ideas into products or solutions for existing industries — from cancer drugs to MRI machines.
It was really hard to compress Emily’s awesomeness down into 10 minutes, so I had to cut the part about the Drawing Board Challenge which she co-founded. That’s a 10-week workshop for school students on how they can change the world. They use tech, science and stories from passionate people to arm kids with inspiration, ideas and skills. Starts next week, so keep an eye out for it.
Listen to the podcast, follow Emily on Twitter here and come back next week for more Peer Review.
