Everyone has a Unique Selling Point (USP), and this statement, which is built on a characteristic, is what an individual’s personal brand is built on. I highly recommend that all of my peers, wait, scratch that. I highly recommend that everyone create a personal brand to differentiate themselves from the crowd.

A good friend, Antonio Neves, directed me to The Secret Lives of Scientists & Engineers. The site, produced by PBS’s NOVA, introduces its visitors to a different world-renowned scientist or engineer every two weeks. The highlighted individual is featured in four, very personal, video interviews, which allows the viewer to grow a personal connection with the subject.

“Men and women do not live by science ad engineering alone… So while you’ll see and hear some of the smartest people in the world talk about cutting-edge research and fantastic experiments, you’ll also learn their answers to questions like ‘When was the last time you ate blood?’ and ‘Have you ever been called ‘Doogie Howser’?’ “

The platform opens up a conversation for the community to interact with each featured scientist or engineer – allowing a Q&A to take place. During my research on the site, I absolutely fell in love with Jean Berko Gleason, a psycholinguist with the attitude of a teenage boy! If you read this Ms. Gleason, please don’t judge my writing!

While Ms. Gleason may be a well-versed speaker and connoisseur of the spoken and written word, Nate Ball is an engineer with a need for adventure. In addition to inventing the Ascender rope-climbing device, used by soldiers and rescue workers, Nate enjoys Free Running.