Encouragement and Inspiration

The March scientiae carnival focused on role models for women scientists. There are a lot of great stories, so you should definitely go follow the links from Liberal Arts Lady's post. While I missed the deadline for the March carnival, I'd like to talk a bit about my dad, who always encouraged my own study of science.

Dad received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from UC Berkeley in January of 1958. He worked at the same public water agency for 32 years, working his way up from Junior Engineer to Assistant Chief Engineer in the planning department, the position he held when he retired in 1990.

He was always supportive of whatever my brother and I were interested in, and that, for me, was science, particularly biology. He helped me with homework if I asked (although that wasn't very often) and with any class project that required assembly or engineering. I always felt like he found the topics I was interested in interesting too, and that there was no reason why I couldn't pursue any field I wanted to. When I was in high school he talked about his own college days; about how much he disliked taking organic chemistry (if I remember correctly, was eliminated as a general engineering requirement after he had already taken the class, which is how he ended up in water-related engineering), and using slide rules, and the fun times he had there. Some of that we probably talked about when I was actually in college - after almost 25 years, it's kind of hard for me to remember. He was always there encouraging me through both college and grad school.

And he was a great role model - he worked hard, always made sure what needed to be done was done well, made sure that he had time to spend with his family, and was happy to lend a hand to friends. He took an early retirement, and the last 18 years he and mom have traveled all over the world, spent time on his hobbies, did a bit of consulting at his old job and generally enjoyed life. I think that's hard to beat.

Dad passed away on on February 28th. At his memorial service several people came up to me and told me how proud he was when I got my Ph.D. For some reason that brought on tears more than any other comment. I'm having a hard time even writing this now. I also learned that he was welcome to women entering both his male-dominated engineering department, and more recently, his male-dominated hobby. I'm not at all surprised.

I miss him very much.

(If you are interested, you can read what I said at dad's memorial service and see more photos on my personal blog.)

Medicine, Women, Blogging and Other Thoughts

Just over five weeks ago I was getting ready to head to ScienceOnline09. I was really looking forward to meeting in person so many of the bloggers I regularly read, as well as my own session on a topic I love. My only worry was that living in Southern California had made my skin too thin for the anticipated winter weather. Then I got the phone call from my mom - my dad was in the hospital and I should come as soon as possible. So I canceled my flight to North Carolina and booked one for Northern California that very afternoon.

At the time I had no way of knowing I wouldn't be back home for a month, but so it happened. I spent a good chunk of that time at the hospital, either sitting with dad or in a waiting room. I guess I could have blogged during those times when I was just sitting and waiting, but honestly I didn't feel much like it. I also didn't really feel like reading other blogs, or novels, or much of anything else either. I kept mom company, I used my laptop to do what I had to get done, read the newspaper and did the crossword puzzle, but that's pretty much it. That, and sat and thought.

One of the things that's immediately obvious is that when you enter the hospital your care is largely dependent on women. Most of the nurses are women, as are many of the physicians and surgeons. It makes me wonder how people who think that women are intellectually inferior or don't have a strong commitment to their careers are able to cope with the idea that their very lives are in the hands of women. Racists and xenophobes must have an even tougher time. At the world-class hospital where my dad has spent most of the past month, many on the medical staff are non-white and/or immigrants. Perhaps there are hospitals in the US staffed predominantly by white American men, but that's certainly not true at the hospitals I've seen.

It turns out I have biases too - I keep thinking that some of the doctors look way too young to be practicing. For some reason I fell like doctors should be older than I am - that was true when I was 20, but not so much now that I'm in my 40s. It's a bit silly, I know, and if I were sick I wouldn't complain if Doogie Howser showed up, as long as I received quality care.

So now dad has been transferred to a skilled nursing facility, and I've returned home, at least for a short while. I've done a big pile of laundry, finally put away the Christmas decorations, and am trying to catch up with the backlog of things to do that have piled up over the past month. I've slowly been working my way through my emails, so if you wrote to me and I haven't responded yet, I apologize. I'll get back to you soon.

Tags: personal