Skip to main content

Economics Alumni Update | Mirza Finds that Economics Complemented His Engineering Studies

“I can say, now, this is a correct statement,” he said.

Puryear had asked Mirza to relate how his academic studies had impacted his career thus far. Following is a summary of his response.

My life started in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where I was born. After four years, I moved with my family to Lahore, Pakistan, where I spent the next 12 years. After I finished 11th grade, I moved to Raleigh, NC, in the southeastern United States, and started high school as a senior.

Being a senior in high school was very challenging and interesting. As I had recently moved to the U.S, I was on a fast-track – learning culture, the educational system, social norms and, most importantly, carving a path to achieve my dream of becoming a chemical engineer.

Fortunately, I was accepted as an undergraduate student in chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University. As I was taking basic science courses to prepare myself for chemical engineering courses, I took macroeconomics as an elective. It was Professor (Mike) McElroy’s elegant and innovative teaching style that exposed me to the power of economics.

Developing a deep understanding of macroeconomics principles provided me a different view of my future: I came to a realization that understanding chemical engineering principles only would not give me the comprehensive knowledge that I needed to become a successful, innovative chemical engineer. Hence, I decided to pursue economics as a second major.

I enjoyed studying economics. I exposed myself to a wide variety of topics including microeconomics, macroeconomics, financial markets, law and economics, econometrics, international trade, et cetera. Every topic that I studied helped me to clarify the picture of how different elements bound and worked together, facilitating the economic system for a country.

Studying chemical engineering and economics together was challenging and exciting. It was in my junior year that I decided to pursue a career in pharmaceutical industry. The reason I picked the pharmaceutical industry was because of its purpose in providing medicines to improve the human condition by curing diseases. I saw an enormous potential for self-satisfaction in the pharmaceutical industry.

To become more informed about the pharmaceutical industry, I took courses in the fields of genetic engineering and biopharmaceutical manufacturing at BTEC – the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center at NC State – to learn about the state-of-the-art technology available for drug manufacturing.

After five years of hard work and a rigorous course load, I began my career as a process engineer with Merck & Co. and relocated to its Elkton, VA, manufacturing facility.

Working for world’s second largest pharmaceutical company was exciting and thrilling. As a process engineer, I was given the responsibility to lead manufacturing for the supply chains of two of the company’s products. For a fresh college graduate, it was a big responsibility. I began to develop relationships with my co-workers and gain understanding of the manufacturing process.

Very quickly, I realized the real power of the education that I received at NC State. Engineering principles that I learned in chemical engineering courses helped me to quickly learn the manufacturing process. Microeconomics helped me to quickly understand the organizational structure of my department whereas macroeconomics helped me to quickly understand the organizational structure of the plant and the whole company.

Three months into my first job, I came up with an idea that could change the way Merck was manufacturing two of its products. My laboratory experiences in chemical and biomolecular engineering helped me to set up a manufacturing process on a laboratory scale. For the next seven months, I performed research experiments, testing the idea I developed. After long hours and extensive hard work, the lab results proved that the idea would be a success. The project will result in extensive financial and environmental savings for the company.

Laboratory experience helped me to test my idea, and the presentation skills and economics/business language that I learned in the classroom enabled me to effectively perform financial calculations and communicate them to the senior management. The ideas of efficiency, productivity, cost reduction, comparative advantage, and competition helped me to see the potential in improving the manufacturing process. A bi-product of this research is that I came up with an idea for improving the manufacturing process of another product that can increase efficiency significantly.