STEM Inspirations

In the Middle of a Sewage Pond

My job every morning was to row a small boat out to the middle of the pond, pull up the cages full of fish. Then I took each fish out of its cage to weigh and measure it to see how well it was growing.

“My work badge soared in a perfect arc up into the air and splashed down into the murky water.”

One memorable day after measuring the last fish, I reared back to toss the cage into the pond. My work badge caught on a wet, slimy rope attached to a float. The badge soared in a perfect arc up into the air and splashed down into the murky water, never to be seen again.

Writing about STEM

Shortly after the sewage pond episode, I moved to a new job at The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. However, like many female engineers of that era I never felt fully at home in the culture, and ultimately followed a different path.

After seven years at Aerospace, I made a career change from engineering to editing a technical magazine, combining my engineering knowhow with my creative, bookish side. Almost overnight, I went from preparing project management charts to writing and editing articles on lasers and fiber optics. I had discovered a different type of STEM career that suited my exact skills and interests!

Later, I became a science writer for organizations such as the National Science Foundation, AT&T Bell Laboratories, and many others.

Since then I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and writing about a number of women in STEM for a wide variety of clients. Here are just some of their stories:

• Gear Pioneer: Kate Gleason was way ahead of her time
• Women in the Lead: Smart Cities
• GMU professor’s ‘Nanoparticle Net’ may detect early cancer, Lyme disease
• Environmental Problem Solver Leslie Guth
• Women in Robotics: Challenges and Progress
• Fiber Optics Expert Suzanne R. Nagel
• Tunable Laser Inventor Mary Spaeth
• Women to play an increasing role in manufacturing industry
• Flex Fuel Pioneer Roberta J. Nichols
• Environmental Engineering: Career of the 90s
• Motherhood and Engineering
• Women in Lasers