What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My first "real" job (aside from the usual leaf-raking, grass-cutting and babysitting) was working in a department store. My favorite department was hardware. I learned a lot about tools, mixing paint (helps one visualize multidimensional spaces) and hardware accessories, and also learned how to react with a wide variety of customers and the management. In college, I worked soldering and wire-wrapping in an electronics shop. That taught me concentration and patience!

Who is your hero, mentor or person you most admire? Why?
Enrico Fermi was one of the greatest physics theorists that ever lived, but insisted on being referred to as an experimentalist. It was learning about the "Fermi Golden Rule," an equation now used in many areas of quantum-mechanical physics, that really gave me the final clinch that I had to go to graduate school in experimental physics so I could study quantum mechanics. I was at Ohio State University, and the professor teaching the course was Charley Ebner. I believe it was Charley's exceptional teaching that sparked me to understand the Fermi Golden Rule, and I will always be grateful to him. Also at Ohio State were two other important mentors: Jim Garland, now president of Miami University of Ohio was my professor for a sophomore level course and has remained a friend and mentor since then; Bunny Clark, who is now a university professor in nuclear physics at Ohio State, was an important role model in many, many ways.

What is your favorite book?
There are so many! One that had a great deal of influence on me in my science many years ago was "One, Two, Three...Infinity" by George Gamow. I was very intrigued with science fiction when I was quite young, and Ursula LeGuinne's books, especially "The Left Hand of Darkness," "The Dispossessed" and "The Lathe of Heaven" were my favorites. As far a general works, I think the play "The Lion in Winter" is one of which I will never tire!

What advances in your field do you envision over the next 10 years?
The field of high-temperature superconductivity created a flurry of research that caused scientists to push experimental techniques to their limits, and we have learned so much about basic experimental and theoretical quantum mechanics because of these advances. That deeper knowledge is allowing us to reach into other fields of research. I envision much more cross-disciplinary research and wider-reaching collaborations that will help create a knowledge base to facilitate our understanding the connections between, what are presently, widely differentiated fields. For example, I believe the impact of quantum mechanics on biological research, or even sociology, ethics and music, will be very important to our understanding of the underlying pattern of this universe. 

What do you see as the single most interesting element of your work?
I suppose that has to be in the rare times you actually make a discovery. For a short time, you are the only person on the planet that knows something...and it is completely new! Then, the vitally important, and just as difficult, task of dissemination of this information through papers, talks and teaching is a wonderful and exciting challenge. In a nutshell "discovery and dissemination," and they cannot be separated!

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Of course, having and trying to raise my two sons, now 7 and 10. As far as the physics, my work on the discovery of the Andreev Bound State at the surface of high-temperature superconductors and using that as a spectroscopy to measure what is consistent with broken time-reversal symmetry (the appearance of magnetism at the surface of these unconventional superconductors) is probably it. I also work very hard at explaining this work to the physics community and the general public, and I am proud of some of my communication accomplishments!

What was your greatest challenge and what did you learn from it?
There were several times in my life that I was told that it would be impossible for me to get a job, or even continue for very long in physics. I always said to myself that a day in physics is better than an hour, a week is better than a day, a month is better than a week, etc., etc. I learned that if you have a real passion for something, you should never give up in striving to reach your goals.

What strategies do you use to maintain balance in your life?
I don't sleep much, I throw money at whenever I can (i.e., house cleaning, good babysitters, etc.) and I keep a sense of humor! More seriously, I try [to] never work when I am with my kids. When I am with them, I am with them, period. When I am not with them, I focus completely on my work, and that includes the time at night, after I put them to bed, and I simply start another workday in my home office. I also find that making time for serious workouts and my music is essential to keeping "human" and therefore only helps the physics and mom stuff.

What advice would you give to young women who want to enter your field?
Follow your heart. If you love it, then don't let anything or anyone get in your way...just do it! It is very important to find girlfriends in this business, too, and my physicist girlfriends and I rely on each other all the time. We used to support each other in person, then by phone and now we are all so busy, it is by email. But every once in a while you need a girlfriend to remind you that what you are doing is possible, and even essential, to you, as who you are.