What was your first job and what did you learn from it?

Assistant Director of Admissions, Jackson College, Tufts University. I processed the applications of approximately 600 applicants for admission to college in each of two years. I learned to be perceptive, to listen, to try to guide others in making important career decisions.

What inspired you to choose your current field or the position you currently hold?

My mentor in undergraduate college inspired me to enter the field of biology and the endless fascination of biological systems inspires me to stay with it.

Why would you encourage other women or young women and girls to choose careers in your field? What advice would you give someone who wanted to choose your career?

This is an era in which fascinating as well as important new biological information is being discovered daily. Genes for various diseases are being localized to specific chromosomes, analyzed in detail, and their controlling regions defined. I would advise someone wanting to choose a career like mine to take all the math, chemistry, physics and biology courses that can be fit into one's schedule in undergraduate and graduate schools. Be prepared to work like hell. Live science, love science; it is a full time-and-a-half job.

What motivates or inspires you on a daily basis in your field or job?

The realization that, much of the time, I am walking where no one else has walked on a route that will yield exciting information that not only is of interest to me but can also potentially be of significance to the world.

What do you see as the single most interesting element of your work?

Devising, planning, carrying out, analyzing, and publishing experiments that will answer questions about growth and development of the animals in which I am interested.

Why is your field or industry important to society?

It holds the answers to fundamental questions that will eventually permit us to understand the mechanisms of cell growth, abnormal as well as normal.

What is your vision for your industry's or field's future? What are some of the exciting things to watch for in your field or industry?

Understanding the mechanisms of growth and development of living organisms; understanding the mechanisms of disease.

What values are the most important to you and what do you value in others? How do you prioritize these values in your daily life?

Intellectual integrity is the sine qua non.

What do you think are the most important character traits to develop in order to succeed professionally?

Intelligence, honesty, integrity, drive, persistence, commitment, diligence, ability to identify and work with like-minded successful collaborators.

Who is your hero, mentor or person you most admire and why?

My hero, mentor and person I most admire is the late Professor Kenneth D. Roeder. He was a brilliant and approachable professor (at Tufts University) and a scholar who made major contributions to the field he loved and who never lost his enthusiasm for either his research subject or his students.

What is your favorite book and why?

"A Feeling for the Organism", by Evelyn Fox Keller, as a biography of Barbara McClintock (my other hero).

What book would you recommend to someone who knows nothing about your field or industry but would like to know more about it?

"The Eighth Day of Creation", by Horace F. Judson

What technology has changed your life professionally or personally for the better?

Recombinant DNA technology, (the basic technology underlying modern genetics) which allows for the large scale replication of specific DNA molecules, thereby facilitating their analyses.

What are your future goals?

During my retirement, I will continue to work to promote the participation of women in science, including their opportunities to practice it (as researchers), as well as to teach it (as professors) and finally, to control (as scientific administrators) the direction science takes as well as its accessibility to those with the talent to do it. I will work closely with AWIS to expedite my efforts

What do you do to relax?