Out of the office, she and her dog Miranda are members of the Los Alamos Mountain Canine Corps. Together, they rescue hikers, campers, tourists, drivers, bikers, and others swallowed up by the wild mountains of northern New Mexico. The magazine exchanged e-mails with her in December. I never seriously considered anything else. At Vassar, I started as a chemistry major, switched to physics, and then, due to the astronomy classes and encouragement and mentoring from Professor Albers, I decided to go to graduate school in astrophysics.
Astrophysics is a fascinating field, but jobs are few, especially for a two-career couple.
The work that I am doing now, studying nuclear explosion phenomenology, is also very interesting and has the further attraction that very few people are doing it or know anything about it. You are actively involved in making the workplace a more healthy environment for women. Describe what it was like to be a woman scientist before changes in attitude and atmosphere began. DOE and LANL, as well as the military organizations that we work with, are still largely male-dominated environments. At almost all of the technical meetings I go to, I am the only woman in the room.