Most people, if asked by the boss to secure a facility stocked with vials of tuberculosis, would find a new job.
Jessica McCormick-Ell found her life's calling.
She accepted the challenge and became—while still in her early 20s—the biosafety manager for the first level 3 biohazard research laboratory at what is now Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She left the industry to get her Ph.D. in microbiology and molecular genetics, but she gladly returned shortly after receiving her degree in 2010.
She has been the Rutgers University Biosafety Officer ever since.