At InfiniteCAL, we take pride in the diverse knowledge and experiences of our employees. Our team of 50+ chemists, account managers, sample technicians and compliance specialists all have unique skills to contribute to the lab’s success, from new method developments to client and consumer outreach and education. In this series, we’ll be interviewing one of our own about what lead them to the cannabis industry, their role in the lab, and their plans for the future.

Leticia recently celebrated two years with InfiniteCAL and has proven herself an invaluable asset to the team. When she first started working at the lab, Lety had little knowledge of gas chromatography but has worked diligently with our master chemist to perfect the technique. She is now our lead GCMS analyst, analyzing hundreds of samples a day for residual pesticides and terpenes.

Name:  Leticia Gomez

Position: Analyst I

University: Point Loma Nazarene University

Degree: Chemistry

First Started at InfiniteCAL: June 2018

What made you want to start working in the cannabis industry?

To be honest I had no idea the legal cannabis industry existed but I was very interested in working in an analytical lab. I came across Infinite’s job position for a lab technician and decided to give it a chance!

What were you doing before you started working  here?

As an undergrad I conducted research in an organic chemistry lab at PLNU under Dr. Dale Shellhamer for two years. Our research was focused on examining the reactions of chlorosulfonyl isocyanate with various alkenes. We would run these experiments under various conditions such as different temperatures. These reactions were all done via Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) in which we would gather data to determine the different pathways that these reactions would make.

I also had the opportunity to travel around Europe for a couple weeks before coming back to San Diego to start my job search.

What’s your favorite thing about working at InfiniteCAL?

My favorite thing about InfiniteCAL has been getting to learn a lot more about Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). I learned about GCMS while in college but never got the chance to experiment much with the instrument. I’m thankful that at InfiniteCAL I have gotten a much more in depth understanding on how a GCMS works and have gotten the opportunity to actually work on the instrument. The senior chemists here have been great mentors (Thank you David Marelius!)

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? How will your experience at InfiniteCAL help you reach that ?

I have no idea where I see myself in ten years but I know that I would like to continue working in the analytical chemistry field. InfiniteCAL will help me reach that since everything I have learned here has given me the background to be able to analyze an infinite amount of analytes.