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Fun. That's the purpose of life. Mom says I popped out of the womb
with a big grin, and asking questions. This means I love kids who
ask questions. She is my hero: volunteer extraordinary, mom of four
girls.
Career path:
My career path was perfect. I went to school, got a degree, went
to work, went back to school and got the next degree, went to work,
went back to school and got the next degree, and then went to back
to work. Then I retired, so I could begin my new career. The details
of this path start at home: my dad, Arthur Iberall, was a brilliant
physicist and he guided my career; he did it by making me want to
find a field that he knew nothing about, far away from physics.
Geology was totally outside his expertise, so I got my BS from Ohio
State University in geology. The rest of my career follows: geologist
in the U.S. Peace Corps with the Geological Survey of Tanzania (East
Africa), Peace Corps gave me non-competitive eligibility for a government
job so I got a job with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Washington
DC and Denver CO as a technician. I eventually realized that I needed
another degree, so I took two years off and got an MS in Geosciences
(specialty: palynology) at the University of Arizona, along with
a Mr. (Brian Robbins, zoologist). Then back to work as a research
scientist at the USGS in Reston VA while Brian did a post-doc at
the Smithsonian. I eventually realized that I needed another degree,
so I left Brian alone in VA to cook and wash the dishes, and took
a year off to get my coursework done at Pennsylvania State University.
Brian went off to do field work in Sierra Leone and Zaire, an assignment
that came with a cook. I wrote my dissertation back at work with
the USGS and got my PhD in Geosciences (specialty: paleoecology).
Through the years I worked on petroleum, ore deposits, coal, peat
in wetlands, and cleaning up acid drainage from coalfields. Over
time I came to realize that many supposedly chemical reactions at
the earth's surface are because of bacteria, so I went back to school
at night and took courses in microbiology.
Next Career:
I retired in 2001 after 34 years with the USGS, and joined as adjunct
faculty at San Diego State. Brian had enough of the snow and chose
this heavenly place. So now I guide students sometimes, but mostly
I teach outdoors science to Native American kids, ages 6-12, living
on Indian Reservations in San Diego County. (That's me in the white
hat, with Luiseno Indian kids from the La Jolla Reservation). And
I don't need any pay to run this activity called Explorer's Club,
because my career path provides me with a government pension until
death. The children are part of a serious problem I am trying to
solve: I am so worried about the Earth, about the chemicals in the
water and in the people, and the trash in the rivers and in the
oceans. I am focusing this next career on learning Native Science,
which is science that comes with values such as caring about the
Earth and thinking about what you do so that people seven generations
in the future will have happy lives too.
Most exciting:
The most exiting research I ever did was in Santorini, Greece. I
was trying to solve a problem related to origin of iron deposits
and life. Santorini is considered to be the modern analog. I wanted
samples taken every month for a year. So I started an education
outreach project with high school students there, and they mailed
me samples every month. Two of my sisters, one a teacher and the
other a writer, got involved in this research, along with our dad.
For this work, the Greek students became famous, there was an article
about them in National Geographic, they've been on TV, and they
were presented with scientific achievement awards by Astronauts
at the 13th Humans in Space Conference there.
Toughest Barrier:
There are barriers everywhere. One mentor taught me: "you gotta
have a thick skin, baby." Another taught me: "when you
get a wall put in front of you, figure out how to use it to your
advantage." My opinion: you need a lot of girlfriends to get
you through the icky parts. But remember what I said at the beginning:
Fun, that's the purpose of life. Being a scientist is fabulous fun.
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