SWE - Winter 2009 - (Page 45) ogy to understand the world around you — the Earth.” I was sold. Junior year, I became a geology major, and thought, “This is just great. I can learn to use all of these other sciences to understand this incredibly open system — the Earth.” As an undergraduate I attended the University of Miami for a variety of reasons — Miami had nice weather and the university gave me a good scholarship. The university had a graduate school of oceanography, and as an undergraduate, I had the opportunity to take graduate classes in oceanography. I fell in love with it. This was such an exciting time in the field — there was much controversy over plate tectonics. Can you imagine now, being a geologist and having been taught structural geology without the concept of plate tectonics? I thought, “Wow, I want to be an oceanographer; I want to be a geophysicist. This is really cool stuff.” From I to We While in college, I met my husband, Bob. We got married and selected graduate schools. The “I” had become the “we,” and I went 2,000 miles away from any ocean to go to graduate school with Bob. When you’re young and in love, you think everything is going to work out. So I ended up at Iowa State, and I didn’t even own a coat. It was really cold there. I was the only female graduate student out of 100 in the geology department. I was only one of two students who were married. That was when I first realized that my path was going to be a little hard. When I walked in, it didn’t help that I had a really good suntan and flowers in my hair — this was the late 70s, after all. The geology faculty looked at me like, “This woman can’t be serious.” Nobody wanted me as a grad student. I was told that I would not get a stipend, even though I had the highest grade point average out of 100 students, because I was married. And, I had a hyphenated name. You notice that I don’t have it anymore. It was perhaps the first case of identity theft, because they said that I couldn’t have a hyphenated name. I was just 21 years old, and I said, “Okay, I can live with that; I’m just going to do it.” I was very lucky. My husband’s department actually came in on my behalf and said, “You’d better give this woman a stipend; it’s not right what you’re doing.” It came to the point, with me in grad school and Bob in continual post-doc positions, that one of us had to get a job because we didn’t have any money. I did get a stipend after the first quarter, and 15 of the 16 faculty members now wanted me as their student. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my name back, but my daughter now has the hyphenated name. I did lose my tan, though, because we were in Iowa. I had a lot of negative stuff there, but it didn’t stop me. I thought this was fine; I could still be in this geology department and learn about the Earth. It was funny — my major professor told me that he chose me as a student because I was about a foot taller than he was, so I could reach things on the top shelf. Actually, he was very good and was able to get me an oceanography thesis project through Scripps Oceanographic Institute. I got to work on an oceanography project, which I really enjoyed. Once again, however, I realized that this really wasn’t enough for me. Fortunately, I had the love and support of an amazing man who said, “Melanie, if you want to go somewhere else for school, it’s okay. I’ll finish up here, and we’ll support it.” It turned out that I did go to an oceanography school — the graduate school at the University of Rhode Island. At that time, my husband’s major professor believed that a Ph.D. took five years, and he didn’t care if Bob finished in three; he insisted Bob was going to stay at Iowa State for five years. So, we had one of those living-apart marriages — and this was before e-mail and cell phones. In fact, we didn’t even have a phone. It was tough, but again, you don’t want to give up. With the love and support of the right soul mate, I was very fortunate, indeed. When my husband finally joined me in Rhode Island, he had to take on three or four post-doc jobs because it was taking me so long in school. He slept in his office to save money because he was commuting to different schools. It makes a good story now, but my daughter probably rolls her eyes when I tell her this, because it sounds so surreal. It came to the point, with me in grad school and Bob in continual post-doc positions, that one of us had to get a job because we didn’t have any money. My husband got a job at Bell Labs, and of course, I followed him. I thought that was pretty darn cool. I was also thinking about having a plan — you know, a job. When I was in school, I didn’t think of professors as mentors; they were more like philosophers. I didn’t get much mentoring about the real world and jobs. When I walked in, it didn’t help that I had a really good suntan and flowers in my hair — this was the late 70s, after all. SWE WINTER 2009 45
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