Lexington, KY - Brent Mayer's title with Neogen Corporation in Lexington is manager of research and development, but a more accurate title might be "problem solver."
"That is literally what I do every day," Mayer said. "Whether it is a new product or an application in the field, I like solving problems."
Not that Neogen, which develops and sells food and animal safety products, is a company full of problems.
In fact, Neogen was just named by TheStreet.com as one of "Five Fast-Growth Companies to Own in 2010." And in 2009, Neogen was named to Fortune magazine's "40 best stocks to retire on."
The company has its headquarters in Lansing, Mich., which has the heart of the company's food safety division. Lexington is the home of the animal safety division, and the company also has offices in Wisconsin, Mexico, Brazil, Scotland and China. The Lexington office has grown from roughly 30 employees when Mayer joined the company in 1996 to more than 100.
Mayer joined Neogen just a couple of years after graduating from Centre College as a research technician. He worked his way up to research scientist and became the research and development manager in 1999. Mayer supervises only a few of the employees at the Lexington lab, where most of the employees are sales, manufacturing and quality control.
The animal safety division
handles veterinary instruments, veterinary pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, disinfectants, and rodent and insect controllers. One of the main product lines to come out of the Lexington office is drug detection kits. The drug screen tests were originally developed for horse racing but can be used on any animal or in any setting, such as a food processing plant, to look for a wide range of drugs that should or should not be present.
"The test looks for drug residue; it doesn't matter where the sample comes from," Mayer said.
The test kits are sold to be administered at locations that "lab test" for drugs in horses that race in Kentucky. The Neogen test kit is a screening test, meaning the sample would have to tested again using a more refined and accurate test to confirm the presence of the drug.
It is not the newest technology, but Mayer said the appeal of the tests is that they are relatively simple and inexpensive to conduct.
Part of Mayer's job is to look for ways to improve the accuracy of Neogen's tests and to fill particular niches requested by customers. In part, because there are a lot more humans than horses, the same basic test has been adapted for use on samples from people. Among Neogen's customers for those tests are the Kentucky State Police and other crime labs.
That expansion into crime labs has led to a relationship with Eastern Kentucky University. Neogen brings in an academic intern each year from EKU's forensic science program. Mayer also is working with Bluegrass Community and Technical College to develop a technician certification program to better prepare students to work in a lab setting, such as the one at Neogen. And Neogen has been providing employment opportunities. It announced in early 2009 a plan to double its research and development efforts by hiring about two dozen R&D personnel worldwide.
Some of the key skills Mayer sees potential lab workers needing to develop include attention to detail, exposure to laboratory techniques, and problem-solving ability - as Mayer said, something he has to use every day.
"A lot of folks don't get a lot of problem-solving opportunities before they get into the real world," Mayer said.
As the manager of the research and development department, Mayer is charged with keeping track of the two to three projects each of the researchers that report to him is working on, in addition to spending some time at least once a week on new products or ideas and problem-solving for customers.
"And I still do some bench work," Mayer said, referring to the type of assignments he had as an entry-level lab technician back in 1996. "I still really enjoy that."