Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Julian Phan
Dr. Tempel
SCI 120
1 March, 2015
Presentation by Dr. Maureen McCarthy
On February 27, 2015, Dr. Maureen McCarthy, director of the UNR Academy for the
Environment, came to visit our class to discuss her journey of life as a woman in science. First,
she discussed to the class about how she preferred to use acronyms and logos to help visualize
and understand the path of her life as a woman in science. She started off by describing to us
about how she rejected medical school in order to pursue something she fell in love with during
her studies as a Chemistry major, the atmosphere of Jupiter. After she graduated from her postdoc, she then was granted the opportunity to work and do research in Washington at the Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory. During her time here, she explained to us the difficulties of
being the only woman working in the laboratories in the beginning and after she left as well.
When she left the laboratory, she then went to Israel to work on her research in nuclear
weaponry; however, she had to leave right before the Gulf War. However, after leaving Israel,
she then went to work for National Security in America. When she described her experience
working in the most confidential facilities and working with the top agencies, I could just not
believe that this person was able to work in the government for the most classified information in
our country. I seriously was in awe by just how she was given these opportunities. After she
discussed about her experiences working for the nuclear science in National Security, as well as
creating and directing several top agencies, she ended by telling us that she then moved West
with her husband to Reno. I think the most inspirational statement she said was probably that she
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followed what she was passionate anout, and that was how she was able and granted to do all
these wonderful things even though she was a woman in science. Overall, I love this
presentation, and I felt so inspired and motivated to do anything because she showed me
anything is possible if you follow what you love.