Severence MacLaughlin (2000)

Severence MacLaughlin ’00, CALS, Animal Science, is an alum of the Cornell Tradition. He is currently the CEO and founder of DeLorean Artificial Intelligence. Severence has worked ever since he was 12 years old and knew his work ethic was a perfect alignment with the values of the Cornell Tradition. He utilized his fellowship experiencing internships abroad, including an internship in computational biology, the area of study for his PhD. Severence, because of his experiences supported by the Cornell Tradition, began to view the purpose of university study as learning how to learn even if that’s not the most prominent view of university in the United States.  The Cornell Tradition encouraged the values of hard work and perseverance which Severence believes are skillsets that are immensely valuable in the long term.

The Cornell Tradition allowed Severence to discover his career interests were actually not in large animal veterinary medicine and dairy medicine—which he had originally intended. He was able to work with sheep alongside a major professor in the animal science department, but realized he was more interested in the origin of sheep ailments rather than treating those ailments. Severence’s newly discovered interest in research put him on the path to earn his PhD in computational biology and pregnancy and embryology at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Severence recommends utilizing the work subsidy of the Cornell Tradition to explore jobs on campus in the fields that a fellow is interested in. He believes best way to gage whether a specific field or career is the best fit for an individual is to have actual experiences within that field or career. Severence also recommends networking with other Cornell Tradition students as it can serve as a commonality and bond when trying to meet other students on campus.

Severence advises students in the program that the subject of a degree earned from Cornell does not pigeonhole a student to a specific field or career. He believes it is important to allow a student’s life plan to be malleable. Severence’s other advice is to utilize the alumni network of the Cornell Tradition and the university as a whole. Alumni want to hear from Cornell students and support them along their academic and career journey. Lastly, Severence emphasizes the importance of having high levels of perseverance and the importance of maintaining that perseverance even in difficult times. Severence would love to be a resource for students interested in data science or artificial intelligence and support all Cornellians.