Actual Living Scientist – Dr. Louis Leong

It recently came to our attention, from this article, that only one in three Americans can name an actual living scientist. As a large biotechnology company, filled with talented and dedicated scientists, we think that is ridiculous. We want to introduce you to some of our staff who are, in fact, Actual Living Scientists.

The first scientist in our series is Dr. Louis Leong. Dr. Leong has been with Bio-Techne at the R&D Systems site (and Bio-Techne Headquarters) in Minneapolis, MN for 5 years. Dr. Leong completed a Post Doc at UC-Irvine in 2000 before moving into industry at Life Technologies for many years before landing at R&D Systems as the Director of Molecular Biology. He initially managed Multiplex Assays and Stem Cell products, but now heads up all of our New Product Development out of our Biotechnology Division. Let's learn a little bit more about Dr. Leong:

Name: Louis Leong, Ph. D.
Position: Senior Director New Product Development
Department: Product Development
Years with Bio-Techne: 5 years

Why did you pursue a career in science? (or a career that led you to Bio-Techne)
Kind of fell into learning science and when I discovered it is one of the few things I could do well. Best to earn a living doing something you do well, so your boss believes you know what you are doing and does not get you canned.

How would you explain your job duties to Jimmy Fallon?
I lead new product development projects. Most of the time our new product development processes work beautifully, for the other times it does not, I fix or clean the messes.

How do you feel your work contributes to the betterment of society?
Our products contribute to teaching, learning and developing new possibilities of science and engineering everyday. Our products are a critical path of the butterfly effects to epic science and engineering discoveries.

Who is/was a scientific influence in your life or career?
My biology and mathematics middle school teachers that showed me science was fun and my English literature teacher that showed me literature was not fun.

We are proud to have Louis on the Bio-Techne team as one of our many Actual Living Scientists.