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Hilde van den Bergh
Physicist
San Diego, CA
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When I was about 15 years old I decided to become a Mechanical
Engineer when I grew up. That idea lasted into the first year of
college for me. And then I took an Astronomy class and fell in love.
It was the first time that I had read a text book cover to cover.
I changed my major and received a bachelor's degree in 1997. During
those undergraduate years I experienced the Astronomy club and working
with my professor on a binary star system using a 40 inch telescope.
It was great! During my last semester I took an Optics class and
again found something fascinating. So, I went into Physics for my
graduate degree. The classes were difficult, but very interesting.
While getting my Master's degree I studied Optics, as well as Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance. It was the NMR research at a local company that
inspired my Masters thesis on concrete curing.
After graduating I got a job at General Atomics where I was working
on a magnetic launcher for jets on aircraft carriers (to replace
the current hydraulic system). I did system modeling and testing
of the prototypes. It was cool to watch a small model take off horizontally,
go 60 mph and stop within 20 feet after I had predicted it using
a computer model!
Currently I'm a stay at home mom with 2 kids. I had my son (now
12) during my first year of college and was a single mom for 10
years. He was my motivation to succeed. I met my husband while working
at GA and after we had our daughter there was no question I would
stay home to raise the kids. But I do keep current with science
and technology by reading a lot and I also do outreach by teaching
science to kids and participating in BEWiSE (Better Education for
Women in Science and Engineering) where we have overnights with
7th and 8th grade girls at local museums and conduct hands-on workshops
that teach anything from optics to forensic science. It's so much
fun to encourage young women to pursue science. The respect you
get in life by being a woman scientist is like nothing else. It's
a reason to be proud. You meet and get to work with the smartest
people (which keeps you on your mental toes!).
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