Jason Song (SEBS’21) pictured with Don Kobayashi, chair of the Department of Plant Biology, during Jason’s visit to the Cook Campus in May 2024.
Jason Song’s Rutgers journey began in 2018 as an international student from China. He completed his first two years on the George H. Cook campus before the pandemic hit and graduated from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences as a Biotechnology major in May 2021.
While Jason felt a sense of loss with respect to the lack of peer interaction and other in-person social activities that is part of a typical undergraduate campus experience, he was nonetheless grateful for the opportunity to continue lab research into the fall semester of 2020, although working in silos.
Like his classmates, Jason had to settle for a virtual Convocation in 2021 to mark the end of his undergraduate career. He left Rutgers to complete a master’s degree in biotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to China to be with his family and to start his career in the industry.
Jason Song visits one of the research labs in Foran Hall on the Cook Campus in May 2024.
Back home in China, Jason completed an R&D internship in biotechnology, then was promoted to a full-time position as Senior Director with responsibility for North America with TransGen Biotech Co., located in Beijing.
Three years after graduating from SEBS, Jason returned to Rutgers to pay a visit to the Biotechnology lab that gave him his start, earning him high praise from his academic advisor, Paul Meers, undergraduate program director for the Biotechnology major.
“Jason is one of the many great success stories among students from our Biotechnology undergraduate program. We appreciate that he has reconnected.”
Meers’ sentiment is echoed by Don Kobayashi, professor and chair of the Department of Plant Biology, under which the Biotechnology program is housed.
“It is always a satisfying feeling when former students share their career successes. Jason Song’s journey is especially rewarding to hear, since it reflects the impact that the SEBS Biotechnology Program has at an international level.”
Jason discusses why he is choosing to give back to his alma mater.
Why did you choose to attend Rutgers?
I have to say Rutgers has an excellent international reputation. And I was attracted by the academic resources and cultural diversity that SEBS could provide.
Although you and your classmates only had a virtual convocation in 2021, you were able to have an in-person graduation closer to home. How did that happen?
In November 2023, I was invited to participate in an in-person graduation ceremony in Shanghai through Rutgers Global. Dr. Liping Zhao, a professor Food science at Rutgers, was a big part of my being able to have this experience. The faculty and alumni all gathered together there, which made me feel at home! Everyone was happy to be there. And after that I felt like my undergraduate life is finally complete.
Jason Song (SEBS’21) is among a number of Rutgers graduates who had the opportunity to an in-person graduation ceremony held in Shanghai in 2023.
What motivated you to give back to the Rutgers Biotechnology program?
After graduation from Rutgers in 2021, I continued my education in the field but focusing on the industrial part of Biotechnology. I feel that my undergraduate professors, like Dr. Meers, Dr. Kobayashi and Dr. Di, really inspired me a lot. Their excellent teaching skills and great personality certainly yielded my success today. That’s why I am doing something to contribute to Rutgers.
In what ways are you able to help?
I very much want to help advance the work of the labs where I spent so much time getting trained and qualified. That would include needed technology, equipment, and reagents so that students can have all the tools available to them to get the research experience. So, this trip visiting the labs was so that I can properly match the resources available to me through my company with the needs of the biotech laboratory.
How did SEBS and Rutgers help prepare you for success?
Rutgers prepared me with so many skills and expertise to be successful in not only higher education but also career development. There were many curriculum choices available to me, there were many deans who helped me to make right choices, and there were multiple professors who influenced me positively all the time!
