Insights
Behind the Breakthrough Answers: What Inspires Your Work?
January 19, 2016
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- Behind the Breakthrough Answers: What In...
Pursuing cutting-edge research and development is hard work. Often, even small components of a larger breakthrough require years of trial and error and creative thinking.
So we asked the men and women of our Behind the Breakthrough Series – what inspires you? What keeps you focused on the goals of your work? Below, hear from two interviewees from Global Good, a collaborative effort between Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures to invent, develop, and deploy commercially-viable technologies that improve life in developing countries, on how they approach some of the world’s most significant challenges.
From L to R: Manan Shukla, Anna Bershteyn
Global Good’s work inspires me. We are a mission-driven organization that aims to make lives easier all over the world. It really grounds me when I meet with end-users and hear their feedback about our work. They are excited about what we are doing because it positively impacts them. For example, we’ve heard from numerous people who are so grateful for having vaccines because of our passive vaccine storage device, Arktek. And dairy farmers consistently tell me that our work will improve their farming and livelihood. Meeting our end-users makes me realize that what we do matters. It’s inspiring. It’s why I always tell people that I have my dream job.
– Manan Shukla, Associate Commercialization Lead, Global Good
Three things. First, it’s the excitement of knowing that we’re really breaking new ground. Second, it’s our technical capacity. We are at this unique interface with software development, policy, and basic research. I think we have the opportunity to move things forward in a new direction. Third, and most of all, it’s my colleagues at IDM. We have an incredible team with an amazing culture. I’ve learned so much from my co-workers. There is a sense of feeling honored to get to do this sort of work, and it makes this place collaborative rather than competitive, even while pushing hard and feeling great pride in our work.
– Anna Bershteyn, Senior Research Manager, Institute for Disease Modeling
Want to hear more from these impressive inventors? Check out our original profiles of Manan and Anna. And don’t forget to follow the rest of our Behind the Breakthrough series by subscribing to our IV Insights blog and following our Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
