God has a way of always surprising Melissa (Meyer) Mofikoya. A chemistry major at Viterbo, Mofikoya was convinced that she was going to be a doctor. In the fall of her senior year, she had a change of heart and decided to go to graduate school instead of medical school. At the University of North Dakota, she joined a research group focusing on environmental testing and analytical instrumentation.

Mofikoya’s advisor had a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that allowed her to spend two summers working at one of their national laboratories. She was chosen as one of 36 graduate students from across the U.S. to attend a meeting of the Noble Laureates in the Sciences in Lindau, Germany. It was a remarkable experience that she will always treasure.

Today, Mofikoya is the associate director of laboratories in the Bioanalytical Research and Development group at PPD, a part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, located in the Madison area. PPD is a contract research organization (CRO) and her group is responsible for developing and validating bioanalytical methods used to support bioanalysis for customer’s filings for new drug approvals or continued drug testing with regulatory organizations such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If you take a medication, an organization such as Thermo Fisher Scientific probably played a part in helping to bring it to market.

Prior to PPD, she worked for another CRO for four years after she finished her PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of North Dakota in 2003 and a post-doctoral fellowship in 2004.

Mofikoya met her husband, Debo, in Madison in 2013.

They enjoy traveling, biking, and spending time with their 16 nieces and nephews in three different countries. Debo is a physician specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. He started his own practice in 2018 and Mofikoya has helped behind the scenes with everything from cleaning and answering phones to creating forms, putting office furniture together, and bookkeeping.

Helping to build the clinic from the ground up is one of the things she is most proud of, and she feels blessed to be able to be of service. “Helping others and seeking even small ways to be of service is one of the greatest things I learned from my time at Viterbo,” she said. “This was demonstrated by the FSPA, the faculty, and staff.”

During her time at Viterbo, there were four primary faculty in the chemistry department who not only knew their students’ names, but also conveyed a genuine interest in helping them to succeed.

“I will never forget the chili feeds at Dr. Rogers’ house, the research work with Dr. Amel, or the Saturday that the environmental chemistry class spent water sampling with Dr. Hassinger. I feel truly fortunate that I was able to attend Viterbo. To God be the Glory!”

Mofikoya and her husband hope to have many more adventures together. They have more places they would like visit, including traveling to at least two other countries to see their nieces and nephews.