DeKALB – Michael Shultz, senior vice president of Research and Design at Turtle Wax, and seven other chemists from the car care product producer will be speaking at a digital Chemistry Club event.

The hour long lecture on working in the real-world chemistry industry will be held at 5:00 P.M. Wednesday through Microsoft Teams. 

“I gave them a broad topic, ‘What is the life of a chemist after college?’” Corey Weinberg, vice president of the NIU Chemistry Club said. 

Weinberg, who coordinated the event, said besides the main theme, he wanted to leave the majority of the presentation’s content up to Shultz.

“It’s fairly important to understand what careers are like, not only your education,” Weinberg said. “I’m 34 and I went back to school, so I know what the real world is like. It’s not exactly like school so some real-world advice from a lot of real-world chemists I think will really help out the Chemistry Club.”

The opportunity to have a senior vice president speak before the Chemistry Club arose somewhat by chance during a trip to the Chicago Auto Show in 2019, Weinberg said.

“There was a Turtle Wax representative there and I said I was a member of the NIU Chemistry Club and [asked if they’d] be willing to do some kind of in-person speech to let the graduating students know what it’s like to be a chemist,” Weinberg said. “Turns out that I was talking to the senior vice president of research and design at Turtle Wax.”

Weinberg said the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the planned lecture, but kept in contact with the representatives, which led to today’s event.

Hosting chemists from the Addison based car polish producer will be the second event in a Job Series hosted by the Chemistry Club. Last month, John Little, NIU alum and Flavorchem’s head of project management gave a similar lecture. On April 7, Margaret Miller of Aerotek Scientific will also be speaking.

Weinberg said he is already in talks with other chemistry-industry professionals and hopes to be able to continue the series indefinitely.

Anyone interested in viewing the lecture can email Weinberg directly at [email protected] or reach out to any of NIU’s Chemistry Club representatives listed on the organization’s website or Facebook to be sent a link to the Teams meeting.