SWE - Winter 2009 - (Page 46) The geology faculty looked at me like, “This woman can’t be serious.” Nobody wanted me as a grad student. So we went to New Jersey and I started applying for jobs. This was before the Internet, so I was looking through the want ads in the paper. New Jersey had a lot of pharmaceutical companies, so I was desperately trying to sell myself as a chemist. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to hire me. I wondered what I was doing wrong. A friend of my husband’s said, “There’s an Army laboratory at Fort Monmouth called the Electronics Technology and Devices Lab (which later evolved into the Army Research Laboratory). They’re always looking for engineers and particularly electrical engineers.” I wasn’t really an engineer, but I sent my resume. Of course, nobody looked at it because it didn’t have that “engineer” word on it. But I was fortunate; my husband’s friend gave me the name of the division chief, Dr. Jerry Iafrate. I sent my resume directly to Dr. Iafrate, and subsequently called him and told him I really wanted to work. He asked, “What are you doing today?” When I replied, “Nothing,” he said, “Well, why don’t you come in to the lab and work with us?” I worked for free for three months. I was initially hired as a replacement for a young woman who went on maternity leave, who of books. I never knew much about electronics. I didn’t even know what a semiconductor was when I started working there. I read a lot of books on molecular beam epitaxy, patterning of devices, process science, dry etching, and finally, after about three months, I was tired of reading. I took a walk down to the lab and saw that they had a transmission electron microscope that was converted into a pattern generator, to make one of the first e-beam direct write systems for patterning of electronic devices that were being made into the highspeed processing chips that are now so common in our computers. I thought, “I’m pretty good at crystallography, and a good physicist,” and I knew that interfaces could control most everything in electronic materials and devices, especially because this is a thin-film technology. So I thought, “I can do that.” I took it upon myself, learned how to align the electron beam from the instruction manual, and then I identified everyone in the New Jersey area who was talented in electron microscopy and thin-film electronic materials — from Bell Labs to Rutgers University. I went in and introduced myself to all those people and started working with them. They became my teachers, my mentors. They were my inspiration, and I developed out of all of this and learned so much I got married at the wrong time; finished school at the wrong time; I had my child after 17 years of marriage. from all of these talented scientists. I think there were such little expectations of me, that, of course, if I did anything, I was going to succeed. Right? I basically built the program. I found myself “in with all the material growers,” the people growing the III-V semiconductor materials, the wide-band-gap semiconductors. They needed someone to look at their materials, to understand the interface interactions between the different compositions within the heterostructures. The interfaces control all the electrical properties. So I made myself not only a unique position, but one that was really valuable. I also found that being local in New Jersey was wonderful because I could work with some of the most amazing scientists in the world. I was so fortunate in my career to work with some of the best scientists at Bell Laboratories, and to this day I still work with Virginia Connolly, SWE president, presents the Achievement Award plaque while Dr. Cole displays the Steuben bowl, given to her by Corning, in keeping with a tradition begun in 1981. was in charge of making coffee and things like that. My team leader soon realized I couldn’t cook, hence I was not really skilled enough to make coffee for him. He quickly realized there wasn’t a lot of synergy there (that is, no coffee). In reality, he was a good person and helped me define my life as well. “I can do that.” In a research lab they don’t say, “Today you’re going to work on X. This is your job.” I didn’t know what my job was. So I read a lot 46 SWE WINTER 2009
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