Women In Engineering: Elizabeth Perepezko
This profile series introduces leading materials scientists from around the world who happen to be females. Here we speak with Elizabeth Perepezko, associate director, research at Zimmer Biomet, Warsaw, Ind.
What part of your job do you like most?
My job is never boring, no day is a duplicate of the previous day, and there are always new challenges to find creative solutions. I enjoy the challenge.
What is your greatest professional achievement?
Freshman year in undergrad, I attended a seminar on orthopedic biomaterials and after that I was hooked on the topic with the goal of working at an orthopedic device manufacturer. Fifteen years ago, I moved to Indiana to start my career as a project engineer at Biomet Orthopedics, which was my dream job.
What is your engineering background?
I have a bachelor’s in materials science and engineering, and a master’s in biomedical engineering, orthopedic biomechanics. My first job after grad school was in the field of physical rehabilitation modalities including functional electrical stimulation (FES) and robotics for patients recovering from stroke, so you could say I’ve covered many of the subfields of engineering with materials/chemistry, biology/medicine, mechanics, and computer programming.
What attracted you to engineering?
I have always been interested in science and how things work, and having a father who is an engineering professor provided me with an outlet to learn more about various fields of science/engineering. We would go to Chemistry is Fun and Physics is Fun public lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, go to the geology department’s rock drop and get to play around in his lab in the materials science department.
Did you ever consider doing something besides engineering?
Forensics. Having done a lot of failure analysis, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how/why a device failed from reviewing the failed components. Forensics combines many scientific fields (failure analysis, chemistry, anatomy/physiology, etc.) and would provide an interesting challenge in “reverse engineering the crime” to figure out “who done it?”
Favorite motto or quote:
“If you do the bare minimum, expect bare minimum results. You want to be great, work to be great. Nothing just happens.”
Do you know someone who should be featured in an upcoming Women in Engineering profile? Contact Vicki Burt at [email protected]
