Behind the scenes with Elena Zaffonato, Quality Control Laboratory Manager, and Laura Zampieri, Analytical Chemistry Special Projects Manager
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Today we are in the Chemistry Lab with Elena Zaffonato, Quality Control Laboratory Manager, and Laura Zampieri, Analytical Chemistry Special Projects Manager, a couple of experts of whom Mérieux NutriSciences is very proud. Very different from each other, but with a common passion for their work in the pharmaceutical field.
Read the interview #BehindTheScenes.
Elena Zaffonato
Quality Control Laboratory Manager
This year you are celebrating 20’years of your career, where and how did you start?
I have a degree in geology and I have started to work in a restoration lab. In 2002, I joined Chelab (now Mérieux NutriSciences) and was assigned as head of the asbestos laboratory What do they have in common you may wonder! The same analytical techniques!
In 2009, I joined Mérieux NutriSciences in the Department of Food Radioactivity Analysis, and subsequently developed the water analysis, which aroused considerable interest right away and grew a lot in a short time. In 2013, I became the Dioxin Laboratory Manager, and in 2019, I was suggested for my current role, Quality Control Laboratory Manager, in the pharmaceutical division.
What was the biggest challenge?
A customer had an emergency due to the presence of contaminants in products. We worked for 3 weeks, h24 to provide all the data that customer needed, and the resources available would never be enough. I had to ask the other labs for support. The managers really moved me: they not only sent me their best technicians, but also allowed them to stay with us to deal with the backlog that had accumulated in the meantime. A great challenge, a great test of both human participation and scientific ability and experience.
In Mérieux NutriSciences you are well known and appreciated for your organizational and management skills, did you know that?
I think it is because I am responsible, I work hard and with a lot of passion, and I am glad that this is recognized and appreciated by my colleagues. I freely admit that when opportunities arose to change roles and lab in Mérieux, I pondered a great deal because these were always situations where the workflow needed to be revised or improved. I was a little worried at first, but I always felt supported by the management even in the most critical moments, and this definitely stimulated me to do more and better.
Laura Zampieri
Analytical Chemistry Special Projects Manager
How did you get started at Mérieux NutriSciences?
It was my first job. I am a chemical engineering major, and I had not spent much time in the lab at university, so the beginning was quite difficult. I started in 2003 in the Food Aroma Lab. The manager was a challenging person, he always demanded the best, it was necessary to be smart and precise. An ongoing examination, I had to work hard and study even harder, and I thank him every day for what he taught me. He was my mentor, and still is today! When he moved to the newly formed Pharmaceutical Division in 2007, I followed him, and the rest, they say, is history. It has been nonstop growth until now that I have become the special projects manager of the Chemical Laboratory and manage a team of 16 people.
You were lucky to find someone to learn so much from, and how do you deal with your team?
Exactly as it has been done with me, I demand the best first from myself and the people who work with me be able to keep up. We handle special projects, that is, studies and analyses for which most of the time there are no official methods already available. Moreover, that is my favourite part of my job, it’s a non-stop challenge and the results are in! It is a lot of work by the whole group, and if there is no trust or alignment, we do not achieve the goals, not only toward the customer but also toward our professional and personal growth.
What team have you established to achieve these goals?
A young team first, full of energy and ideas, from whom I learn and who in turn learn from me. I enjoy working in a group where there is a lot of energy that is put to it! I am looking for ambitious, determined people with enough character to accept everyday challenges. Surely those who show up for the interview with their mother, as it happened, do not meet these requirements.