To Shoot for the Stars

Big telescopes lead us to the Hubble. Tell me about that.
In 1993, when I was a postdoc at MIT, they discovered a comet called Shoemaker-Levy 9, which was orbiting around Jupiter. The guy down the hall from me asked to help him write a proposal to use Hubble. In December, I got a phone call and they said, "We have picked your proposal and five other proposals to watch this comet crash into Jupiter and we would like you to be the leader of the team to combine all five proposals." I had never used Hubble. I had never published a paper about Jupiter and here they are asking me to lead the team. Part of it might have been because I was not a Jupiter expert and so I didn't have a vested interest. Maybe they just rolled the dice. I don't know. I remember being absolutely flabbergasted but I had to say yes.

How did you manage it?
I relied on my team. I had great people to work with. That's another thing I try to explain to young people. A lot of people think science is a real solo thing. They think of Einstein sitting at his desk in the patent office all by himself. But nowadays, for the most part, science is done in a collaborative environment.

Has being a woman affected your scientific career?
Women usually bear the brunt of the two-body problem (when both spouses work). Ten years ago I was a principal research scientist at MIT when my husband got a job that relocated us to Connecticut. I went through a real crisis, since there were no jobs for me anywhere nearby. Finally someone told me about the Space Science Institute. They let me work in an office at my home, although I travel all the time for meetings and for work at the telescopes. I am now the co director of SSI's Research Branch. Our scientists are all across the country. It really makes sense to work that way. Even at MIT, my scientific colleagues were in Arizona, California, all over, not just down the hall.

How do you manage work and family?
I rely on my spouse, my neighbors and the other parents at school to help. My biggest headache is things that just pop up out of nowhere, since I am usually coordinating schedules between my work, my husband's work and my three children's activities up to a year in advance. But you just learn to deal with life on a day-to-day basis, and sometimes even an hour-to-hour basis during a rough spell. And you try to keep a sense of humor.

What ' s the best advice you could give young women?
Don't turn down an opportunity because you are afraid. That's not a good reason to turn down something. So many people, especially women, think they're not qualified when it comes to new opportunities. You think there is someone who can do a job better, but usually there's not. Those guys who are acting like they are better qualified? They aren't any better qualified. They just think they are. Be willing to take a chance!

© 2007