Investing in the Future: Follow Your Dreams

Beatrice, based in Milan, is in Bologna for work this week and is thrilled.

Traveling and meeting new customers are two of the favorite parts of her job as a service engineer for SPECTRO Analytical Instruments.

This week, she's doing both.

At SPECTRO for more than two years, Beatrice has been part of the company's worldwide team responsible for installations, maintenance, and training to a wide range of customers using the company's instruments for research, production, quality control, and analysis. She enjoys the diversity of her job, as each day presents unique challenges and opportunities.

For Beatrice, it's a career that started in her childhood with her love of science and mathematics. From there, she's just been heeding her mother's advice to follow her dreams.

Science and math were fun and exciting in elementary school. But Beatrice recognized the importance of the topics when she participated in upper school competitions and was challenged with "real-life problems to solve with the help of math."

At the Politecnico di Milano, Italy's largest technical university, she decided to combine her "favorite school topics with practical things" — applying math, physics, chemistry, and science to real real-life problems— and focused her studies on chemical engineering.

"Society would not be able to produce anything without chemical engineering or engineering in general," she states.

Beatrice's first experience in a laboratory was in 2020 during an Erasmus Programme affiliated with the Ecole Centrale of Marseille, an engineering school at Marseille University. There, in a chemical lab, she conducted research for her thesis project and gained insight into the real-world lab work and challenges of lab technicians. The experience also first introduced Beatrice to AMETEK analyzers.

After graduating, Beatrice was attracted to a job at AMETEK, which offered an opportunity to combine spectrometer measurements and chemistry, particularly in the industrial chemistry applications she studied in university.

Today, at SPECTRO, Beatrice is proud to help customers — who work in various applications from food to metals production — optimize their laboratory processes and improve their analysis and production methods to ensure the quality of their resources and products.

Beatrice emphasizes that engineering, particularly chemical engineering, contributes significantly to society.

"Chemistry is everywhere, impacting our lives every day and everywhere — from the food we grow and eat to the products we make and use to the conservation of our environment," she explains.

Engineering, she advises, is an essential field for university students to consider as their career. Studying engineering helps to develop systematic?thinking and problem-solving skills that can be applied to various professions — for both women and men. While in some areas, there is a disparity of genders, it is shrinking, she notes. For example, while Beatrice's flatmate was one of only eight women in a class of 200 mechanical engineering students, chemical engineering was much more diverse — about half and half. That's encouraging and needs to continue.

"A woman can do anything," and a female student should never be discouraged from her field of choice. In any situation, "women and men working together will make it better," Beatrice states.

Beatrice's role models would agree. Beatrice's mother, Cinzia, "never gave up." She left home and overcame many personal and societal obstacles to pursue her career as a nurse. She has always encouraged Beatrice to follow her dreams. Beatrice's role model in science is the renowned neurobiologist and Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini OMRI OMCA. Beatrice credits both as inspiration for her accomplishments.

As for newly graduated students, Beatrice notes that AMETEK is an excellent career option.

"I would like more young people to join us."

But, starting with good salaries and positions, the real value is the considerable training, learning opportunities, and strong, continuing teamwork. "I work individually, but this is also a team job." Beatrice notes that her colleagues continually "teach each other and share ideas to solve problems."

Beatrice's passion for science and dedication to her service engineer job is evident. She appreciates the opportunities and responsibilities of her career. She especially enjoys the dynamic nature of her work, where each day brings new challenges and the chance to make a positive difference in customers' operations. And, of course, there's the opportunity to extensive travel, explore different cities, and immerse herself in different cultures. Today, it's working with customers throughout Italy.

Someday, Beatrice hopes, she'll be traveling to and working with customers throughout Europe — while following her dreams.