Gum Guru Guest Blogger: Mary Lou Cunningham, R&D, Innovations Manager

The other day I ended up in a check out line behind a mom, two kids and a shopping cart overflowing with back to school clothes and supplies. Momentary flashback to my own school days – trying on itchy woolen clothes when it was still 100 degrees outside, picking out pencils and notepads when I’d much rather be picking up seashells and lightning bugs. Glad that I didn’t have to worry about all that back to school stuff anymore…

But wait a minute! I AM going back to school. This week, as a matter of fact. Uh oh!

Yes, Gums 201 started this week. It is the second of three classes in TIC Gums’ internal education program known as Gum Guru University™. It’s designed and taught by one of our principal senior scientists, Dr. Mar Nieto, who is a co-Gum Guru Guest Blogger. The subject matter and pace are on par with graduate level classes in chemistry and food science. Twice a week everyone in R&D attends lectures, and over the course of the class we perform lab exercises and generate exhaustive lab reports summarizing our results and conclusions. There are quizzes, a mid-term and a final each semester, with no small amount of good natured competition among the students to see who gets the best grade.

I must say that as a result of Gum Guru U, the level of discourse within the group has stepped up a notch. We’ve always had a technical environment - now, even more so with discussions about three dimensional structures or the implications of certain G’ or G” values. Being truly experts with regard to the chemistry and structure function relationships of our products helps us be more innovative and more helpful to our customers.

So it’s time for me to get my back-to-school act together - notebook, markers, pens, highlighters, and flashcards. I’m definitely going to need more flashcards.