Liki von Oppen-Bezalel has written in several distinguished international publications, is a sought-after speaker, as well as a co-inventor in cosmetics active ingredients and continues to pioneer new supplement solutions at TriNutra.
The Israel native said working in beauty/cosmetics sciences was not part of her plan, but one job changed everything.
“Microbiology and biotechnology is a perfect field for me because it's kind of interdisciplinary and I love research, I love inventing and combining things together. But I never thought about beauty and cosmetics as the main target. The target was to work in the industry because academia is not for me–I'm way too practical for academia. Towards the end of my PhD, I basically started working in a startup company heading research and development and this company made active ingredients for cosmetics, and that was the first step into this world. And I'm there, until now.”
von Oppen-Bezalel credits her upbringing in a household where gender equality was normalized to helping her achieve her goals.
“I was basically oblivious to this gender thing throughout my career. I never thought about it as a female and the reason for that is I grew up in a very equal environment. At home, my parents were the perfect example for supporting each other and letting each other grow and thrive and also the environment where I grew up in, at the time in Israel, it was not an issue or maybe I just didn't even think about it. And that was very, very helpful in achieving goals because it was never the question of if I can make it, it was just how to make it work.”
