In Our Own Words

Lucie 

"I joined Saint-Gobain in 2014 after a PhD in Materials Science and a post-doc fellowship. Coming from the academic research world, I had to learn how to balance the desire of fundamental understanding and the necessity to develop creative solutions that answer our clients’ needs. Cultivating empathy and putting myself in the shoes of my clients is driving my every day job and decisions.

 

In the Grains and Powders group, I work on developing a new generation of abrasive grains for Saint-Gobain Abrasives, also known as NORTON. Having my client as part of the same organization and even the same multidisciplinary team allows easy and frequent technical exchanges. Thanks to this close development, I have a deep understanding of the use of our abrasive grains. I value a lot the specificities of all the collaborators inside my team since they help me to consider various points of view and think outside the box.

 

Since I joined the company, I worked in 2 locations: CREE (France) and NRDC (USA). More than 30 different nationalities are present on the NRDC site. Having the opportunity to have an international career and being part of such a multi-cultural organization is sometimes a challenge but mostly an eye opener!

 

Finally, R&D is anything but a routine job: change is the only constant. It’s all about experimenting with new things and constantly learning even sometimes from your failures. It also forces you to question things, habits, beliefs, and to discover new industries, new applications and new technologies… being open to change definitely helped me adapt to these constant challenges!"

 

Lucie 

Senior Research Engineer