2002 Conference Summary

April 18-19, 2002 

Vivian Baylor told conference participants that she had a strong desire to study mathematics at a very early age.  Her interest in mathematics was well established in high school.  She was good in math and attended Virginia Tech University as a math major initially.  Unfortunately, in college, she found math less than exciting, and the political climate of the 1960s lead her to change her major to political science.  Vivian later returned to school to get a degree in English, followed by her next major life change, getting married.  Like many women, she followed her husband, a ceramics engineer, to Oak Ridge, Tennessee where she went back to school to pursue her third bachelors degree in metallurgical engineering.  During her studies, she got at job as a summer student at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and stayed there 25 years.  She worked as an engineer at ORNL for the first five years, and then realized she found management more exciting.  She has worked in management for 20 years and has been satisfied with that decision. 

Vivian has enjoyed the variety of her work at ORNL through the years.  Her current area is national security where she manages technology development programs.  She never doubts that all of her educational experiences have helped her advance in her career.  For example, it is often thought that engineers are not good communicators, but she feels her various educational experiences improved her communication skills, both written and verbal.  Her political science background has been helpful for her current work in the area of national security.   

Her closing message for the women at WIST was that when ‘opportunity knocks’ make sure you open the door.  You never know what experiences will be helpful down the road.   

Also, you must like what you are doing because with full-time work such a large fraction of you time is spent at work.  You must feel you are doing important work.  

Lastly, have courage, be prepared to risk change at work.   

Dr. Sandra Davern told conference participants that she was from Ireland, currently on a postdoctoral appointment at ORNL.  In the Irish educational system you must decide on your educational focus at a young age.  She was good at science and was interested in research because she thought it would match personality--she considers herself an introvert.  She has come to realize that in research, you must be able to present your findings so even though she hates public speaking; she always forces herself to do it.  She is sure that any career would have some aspects to it that you did not like.  People who succeed must overcome these less well-liked aspects of their careers.   

Like Vivian, Sandra came to ORNL because her husband had been offered a postdoctoral position there.  She was open-minded about the opportunity for herself and did find a research project at ORNL that she loves.   

Sandra also shared her love of being a working mom.   She finds research very flexible in terms of being able to work when it is most convenient for the child.  Working everyday from 8 to 5 is not really very flexible for raising a child.  She and her husband can trade-off work time with child time for each other.  You can set your own schedules to meet deadlines.  She feels it is very important to be happy in your work and come home happy to your child.  The child benefits more from your happiness than having you home all day if you are miserable.  

Janice Watkins is a statistician at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU).  Janice described her high school experience as ‘intense.’  High school was followed by two years in college as an elementary education major, but she could not resist the mathematics courses.  She told conference participants, “if you have it in you to do science and math, it will win, no matter how hard you fight it.”   Janice completed a masters degree in mathematics and did teach for a period of time but did not find it fulfilling after awhile.  She and her husband had three children and her husband went on to get his PhD.  Janice returned to get another masters degree in statistics from the University of Tennessee but did not go on for her PhD.  Janice asserted that statistics could be applied to any field imaginable.  She feels that to be good at statistics you must be good in math and also have creativity.  In some sense it combines hard science with art.   

Janice came to ORAU for a summer internship when she was 43 years old and has now been here 14 years.  She likes her work because there are always new projects, something interesting; you are never stuck if you find there is something that is not a good fit for you.  

Dr. Jane Howe told conference participants that her parents were engineers but her grandparents were artists.  She has come to view science as a ‘kind of grace’ because science can be as graceful as art.  She encouraged participants to take their time to figure out what they want to do, and to follow their interests because you must wake up everyday wanting to do the work you have chosen.  Women should visit laboratories to explore their interests, read lots of science books, talk to people, and work as a research assistant.  Use these opportunities to try out different fields.   

Jane shared with the audience the fact that she had failed calculus because she was not interested in it.  She wished she had taken time after high schools to decide what she wanted to do in the future, but China’s educational system is different, she was not able to focus on areas of interest.  She does feel that poor academic performance can be overcome, if you are focused and willing to work very hard.  

Jane offered the following tips on pursuing a career in science:  

1. Go to conferences and meet people.  It is important to network with people like yourself.  She met her mentor at a conference and that mentor brought her to her current position at ORNL as a postdoc.
2. Read lots because ‘you are what you read.’  She reads both science and non-science.  It is important to know what is going on in all areas of science, not just the area you work in.
3. Balance your life with both mental and physical exercise.
4. Go outside and learn about nature.  The best materials are natural, not man-made so she must learn from nature.
5. Have a sense of community, be a volunteer, do not isolate yourself in your work or laboratory.

Lastly, Jane said she feels as if it is a good time to be a woman in science.

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