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Adam Estelle, guest blogger

With about two months to go before graduation, I suddenly realized I hadn’t put much thought into life after college. All the other Materials Science majors at the University of Arizona seemed to have glamorous plans for research, grad school, travel, or at least something more interesting than staying in Tucson, Arizona.

I frantically passed out resumes to several local companies and to my relief, was invited to a hiring event for a large defense agency shortly after graduating in May of 2008. After an intensive but successful interview process, including fingerprints and a mug shot, I was sent home with my head high, believing I would soon be an employee of the United States Federal Government.

Apparently, Uncle Sam had other plans, and I soon received an emotionless response that the position was no longer available. So began the discouraging and exhausting process of emails, phone calls, letters, lunches, and the other joys of job searching.

In the midst of my search, I came across a listing for a job in New York City. At 22, I didn’t think I was ready to leave Tucson, let alone Arizona, but the clock was ticking. After a phone interview and several letters of recommendation, I found myself on a plane to New York for an interview. I was immediately immersed in a tightly knit group of individuals guarding the destiny of the United States copper industry.

After a long plane ride home and several patient days of waiting, I was given an offer and found myself heading back east with two suitcases and my foot in the door of a multi-billion dollar industry.

I read voraciously to get up to speed on the current projects and soon found out that the opportunities and responsibilities of a young engineer in the copper industry would increase at a breathtaking pace.

As I learned more about the oldest metal used by man, a forgotten property used by the ancients would come to dictate the majority of my time: copper kills germs. I became engulfed in the rediscovery of this phenomenon along with the legal, regulatory, and industry-related challenges that came with it.

Adam Estelle is a project engineer with the Copper Development Association. He will be blogging from time to time on his work with antimicrobial copper.