Transcript
Neil explains why he joined the Regeneron team
Well, I had actually never ever considered going to a company it was not something that I had thought I was really in my future or even worthwhile. I never even had any role models that were at companies. So, I decided that I was going to move on from Stan prisoners’ empire and try to set up my own lab. So, I applied all around the country to various universities and my CV went to Mike Brown actually and Dallas. And he forwarded on to Regeneron and said you guys could use a biochemist like this guy and they called me up and asked me to come visit. And I was already coming here to visit another university anyway, so I thought, “Oh, what the hell I'll stop in and have a look”. And so, I came to Regeneron. It was here, in the in the old buildings across the street, and I think at that time there were maybe about 30 people at most, it was March of 91. And when I walked in in the morning and I sort of looked around, I thought there was no way in hell I could ever join an operation like this. And then by the end of that one day, especially at after I had talked to George, I had convinced myself that I could do more science and better science at Regeneron than I ever could as a lonely assistant professor someplace. So, after a little soul searching and also after talking to Mike Brown, who very nicely took my call, Nobel laureate takes the call from postdoc and he assured me that if I came here for a couple of years and I really didn't like it, he would do everything in his power to give me a job back in academia. So, I decided to come to Regeneron and give it a try. And I've been here. This is my 19th year now.