Student blogs

Hello hello! It’s time for a new series that I’ve been very excited to share with you: alumni interviews! Whether you’re currently a student at KI, busy applying right now, or considering to apply, it can never hurt to get some inspiration for the future. For me, a toxicology student in my second year, the post-graduation life is for sure starting to come closer and closer, which is why I’m really grateful that we recently had a future workshop in my master’s, where alumni came to present their career paths. This is how I met Leena, my first interviewee:

Who are you, what’s your background and when did you graduate?

My name is Leena Veinola, 29-years old and originally come from Helsinki, Finland but have now been living in Sweden for a total of almost 4 years. I studied my bachelor’s in pharmacy (2016-2019) in the University of Helsinki, and after graduating I stayed working in a local communal pharmacy as a full-time pharmacist. Covid- times pushed me to pursue one more degree, so I applied to Karolinska’s Master of Toxicology- program and thankfully got in in 2022. I graduated with my class in 2024.

What did you do after graduating from the tox master?

Graduation was a true whirlwind of emotions; I was glad to graduate with my Master’s, however knowing I had to leave the life I had created in Sweden behind for the time being felt like a slap across the face. I was offered a summer position as a research assistant by my amazing thesis supervisor, however due to prior commitments, I was obligated to return to Helsinki in my old position as a pharmacist. I worked through the summer ’24, gave myself a moment to re-gather my thoughts and then started my active application process for toxicology- related positions across the Nordics.

In autumn ’24 I got into an interview process for a human health toxicologist position with Nouryon located in Gothenburg, Sweden. I was offered the position by November ’24, so five months after graduating. I made the bold decision to resign by the end of the year, gathered my things and moved over to Sweden again, this time with all my belongings with me and into a city I had never even visited before. For 1,5 years I worked with surface chemistry substances, building myself a good basis of toxicology tasks across the field, including study monitoring, read-across justification writing, REACH dossier updates, classification reviews, QSAR tools and so on. Learning from a very well experienced team was definitely an asset!

What are you working with right now?

I started in my new position at Nynas AB as a Product HSE (Health, Safety, Environment) Advisor/Toxicologist at mid-August this year, working with bitumen (asphalt) and naphthenic specialty products. Leaving my old position at Nouryon was not an easy decision, but nevertheless the right one (my current office resides in Stockholm, whereas traveling the Gothenburg-Stockholm train trip started to wear on me a bit after the 1,5 years living in Gothenburg but having most of my social circle in Stockholm). In this position, I work with regulatory updates for our products, Safety Data Sheet updates, reply to customer inquiries on regulatory and toxicological aspects, and participate in toxicology working groups, where we collaborate with other toxicologists from global oil/fuel companies and assess the substances included in our products. Surprisingly, my current team is working under the Sales and Marketing- department, which I never thought to find myself in! Even though it has been only a few months, I’ve already been able to dive into many new projects, learn a lot of new computational tools and even got to participate in a big bitumen conference in Liverpool and network within the company. 

What learnings from the master’s are most present in your current work life?

The ToxMaster of course gave me a very good broad scientific knowledge on toxicology, but I really need to give credit to KI’s research-oriented atmosphere and how it shaped my way to approach scientific text and data with a critical eye, and how to be observative on many sides of the same issue. The endless group work during the studies also gave a good scope of how to pull my weight (or pull the entire team) in a group setting, which I could say is applied to working life, if not every day then certainly every week. Also, since the first year of the ToxMaster was so hectic and full of projects, reports and examinations, I feel like no amount of work in working life will faze me hahah… Definitely learned how to schedule and prioritize my work!

Is there something you would’ve liked to know earlier?

I wish I had known that everything would eventually work out in the end, as cliché it may sound. Imposter syndrome tends to follow me around a bit, but I try to remind myself and also current students about the fact that you would not have made it this far, if you were not capable. Also, I remember thinking that some of the toxicology tasks seemed so much bigger and “larger than life” when learning about them during the master’s, but I came to find out that nothing looks as grand on the office computer screen. I would want to encourage the current and prospective students to take on things they have not tried before; you’ll never know what you may achieve!

Thank you for the interview!