Meet Our Women Faculty

The women faculty in ADVANCE departments have a wide diversity of career paths and experiences. Learn about the challenges and rewards of being a woman scientist or engineer at the University of Washington.

Rose Ann Cattolico, Biology

Kiki Jenkins, Marine Sciences

Frieda Taub, Aquatic & Fishery Sciences

Wendy Thomas, Bioengineering

Dee Boersma, Biology

Kate Huntington, Earth & Space Sciences

Rose Ann Cattolico, Professor, Biology

 Why algae?

I took a masters degree studying pollen in terrestrial plants and I developed a horrible allergy to the pollen. So when I was looking to do a PhD, I wanted to choose a system where I wasn’t going to develop an allergy. A friend of mine was working with algae and I was introduced to his advisor. The project seemed very interesting to me so that was the first time I started studying algae.

What is your current research focus?

I’m working on a number of things because my interests are really broad-based. I’m working on the evolution on the chloroplast genomes and we have a NSF grant to sequence 40 chloroplast genomes. Then we are looking at harmful algal blooms, organisms that bloom off of the coast here and cause death to finfish. We are looking to identify population diversity in these bloom forming algae. We are also studying lipid biogenesis in algae and how an organism makes the oils that it makes and packages them. This relates to a whole new project that I’m doing about algae to energy transitions.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

I am most proud of my students who are sort of my academic children. They are fabulous. With respect to the work that I’ve done, there are a few special areas where I think I have changed the paradigm of the field with my contributions. That’s probably in the area of chloroplast biogenesis and I hope now in the biofuels area. I feel like I’ve worked my whole life in the area of algal biology and now I can give back to society in a unique way.

What were the perspectives of women scientists when you were in school?

I actually went to an all-girls, college prep, high school. It was just really terrific because there was no real competition except among the ladies. So, when you were good in a class, you were good in a class. There were no gender issues. In college, it was excited to work with guys because I found that they thought differently. Sometimes we would do math and they would come up with an answer in a different way than I did. It was a new, fun experience in learning.

Did you face any challenges due to your gender?

Gender challenges in some cases were absolutely profound. Just starting with parenting, I adopted my son as a single woman. The support system was nonexistent. I received no leave time so my son lived in the back of my office. I would have to leave early from meetings because I had to be at daycare, and I would get really negative feedback from my male colleagues because of this. It was just a really tough walk but I would never trade in the experience for anything. But I think the support system has really changed for the better now, for both men and women.

What does being a woman scientist mean to you?

When I first came to UW, I taught the intro biology course. I had a graduate student sit in the back of the classroom because I wanted him to give me some feedback. Later, he told me that the students were saying, “Hey! It’s a woman! Wow!” So then I felt that if I did a really good job at what I did as a scientist, that the male students and colleagues would see that a woman was able to do this kind of stuff and the women would know that they could be there too. So all I had to do was a good job and be passionate about what I do.

What are you doing to inspire the next generation of women scientists?

First, being the best woman scientist I can be. Secondly, having as many women in my laboratory as I can and trying to individually mentor students that are here. It’s really exciting for me to see how many women are moving into science successfully. I know it’s really tough when a woman is in the phase of her life when she’s having babies and juggling her home life with career life. I hope that we as a society can understand that challenge and continue to support young women, especially in that period of time.

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Kiki Jenkins, Research Associate, School of Marine Affairs

What sparked your interest in marine biology?

In terms of doing marine studies as a career, I didn’t know until graduate school. But once I went to a marine lab, I saw that there were a lot of problems. There were conservation issues that needed to be addressed in the oceans, and not enough people to do it. But looking back on it makes sense because I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore. Recreational fishing and crabbing was always a big part of me and my family so it makes sense that I ended up doing this.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

When I came to graduate school in conservation school, I wanted to do research that mattered and made a difference. I didn’t just want to do research that sat on the shelf. Both the major projects I’ve done so far have resulted in policy change. My first one was my dissertation which listed recommendations for problematic American policy changes. I received $100,000 worth of grants from my dissertation to help raise awareness and lead to the use of a certain knowledge base. My other major project was looking at the concept of allowing fishermen to use less environmentally damaging gear types. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) of the federal government. They are now in the process of passing a regulation that will allow fishermen to legally do that. The ball that really started this rolling was a report I did and presented to the PFMC. These are the works that I am really proud of because they led to conservation benefit. As a hallmark for all my research, I want to be able to look back and say “Here is something that not only could have been beneficial, but it actually was.”

What is your current research focus?

I have a Smith conservation research fellowship. This project is looking at the international adoption of marine conservation technologies in Latin America. It will be doing a comparative study comparing what happened with the problematic technology that U.S. promoted in the 1980s to what may happen with newer technologies that Congress has mandated that countries have to use if they want to continue to export fish to the U.S. This work will take place in Costa Rica and Ecuador.  The team will be interviewing fishermen and conservation managers (both in U.S. and coastal countries) about their fishing methods and opinions. I just got this research up and going and I am really excited.

What is the message that people should take away from your work?

Solutions for environmental problems can really come from anywhere – not just from scientists. The problem-solving process should be one that channels all feasible ideas to a place where they can be assessed by their merits. This allows for people like fishermen, who may not be highly-educated, but very knowledgeable to feed into that process. Right now a lot of our processes are very government and industry-driven so it’s hard for other stake holder groups who don’t have a scientific basis to have a say. This egalitarian approach would also lead to people wanting to adopt the solution afterwards.

What were the perspectives of women scientists while you were in school?

I went to an all-girls high school so all of my science teachers were women except for one. From that perspective, I was used to seeing women scientists. When I got to college, though, I started noticing that things were a little bit different. There weren’t as many women. I felt like the female PhDs who were on faculty didn’t represent me and my peers. It was as if they had given up their womanhood to become a PhD in science... But looking back on it I think that they were the pioneers. There were a lot of walls they had to push down that required a certain personality. Now that they have paved the way for female scientists, all different ways of being a scientist is more acceptable for women.

What does being a woman scientist mean to you?

I just feel like a scientist. It wasn’t until later that I started to realize that it’s harder to be a women scientist. In some ways, that is sad to me. People I know who are interested in science can track it down to when they were younger and fascinated by the scientific process. It is such an idealistic and joyous place to be. Unfortunately, the reality of doing science is not that ideal. In that regard, it is disappointing to my younger self. But it always gives me a sense of responsibility for the younger generation of female scientists. I can’t help but collect mentees and try to support them. I feel an obligation to re-create that joyous ideal of science for them without burdens of societal prejudices of women scientists.

What are you doing to inspire the next generation of women scientists?

I do a lot of mentoring. I try to keep track of what my mentees’ current aspirations are and send them any information that would be helpful (internships, fellowships, etc.). When they are at pivotal moments, such as deciding which graduate school to go to, I really pull in my network and set up informational interviews for them. Whenever I am in the same area as them, I try to meet with them and encourage them to attend conferences where I am going to be. On the larger scale, I also helped put together a diversity workshop that focused (among other things) on diversifying the number of women in the sciences. Since many of these women continue into leadership positions, we wanted to give them the skills to change their institutional environment into one that supports diversity across the board, not just academia.

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Frieda Taub, Professor Emeritus, Aquatic & Fishery Sciences

What sparked your interest in biology?

Children’s Nature clubs in the Newark Museum, New Jersey. They offered these clubs as soon as you were in school. I went into kindergarten at four years of age. My sister didn’t want to take care of me after school so she signed me up for these clubs. Then, they changed the rules so you had to be seven. So from the time I was five until I was seven, I just wandered around the Newark Museum. The people in the science department got interested in me and wanted to know how much science they can teach a child. It really started way back when I was four or five years old when I started getting interested in science.

What were the perspectives of women scientists while you were in high school and college?

They were considered pretty poor in high school. There were very, very, very few women faculty in college. The director of the Newark Museum was a strong female and many of the teachers were women as well. There I was as a young child, seeing women in positions of eminence and power. But in college, I had very few women instructors. Women were usually in the marginal, side positions.

Who encouraged you to pursue science?

On the undergraduate level, there were a number of professors who recognized that I was very seriously oriented towards science.                        

What does being a woman scientist mean to you?

I’m surprised at the fact that I was able to do it. I really regard it as a miracle of how much the world has had to change to make my lifestyle considered ordinary. Back in 1959, when I received my PhD, it was considered “really freaky” for a woman to have a PhD. When I told people that I had the ambition to become a college professor, I was told to “get real”. People overtime, within my immediate milieu, came to be supportive. But society has changed in terms of the acceptability of women.    

Do you have any advice for young women pursing the scientific field?

Do what you want to do. I think that’s the only thing you can do. I don’t think anybody should become a scientist because their family or society wants them to.  

What are you doing to inspire the next generation of women scientists?

Just being myself. I help a number of middle and grammar school kids on science projects. I’m known as the Daphnia lady on campus.

Any additional comments?

I’m just very pleased now that there are many opportunities for women scientists. Going to the ADVANCE meetings and seeing all the women faculty is a very warming feeling.

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Wendy Thomas, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering

Why bioengineering?

As an undergraduate student, I was trying to pick between computer science, molecular biology, and math. This was back in the 80’s when I had never heard of bioengineering and ended up picking molecular biology. I worked for ten years as a research technician and then decided to go to graduate school. I hadn’t really seized on bioengineering but I looked at a number of different fields and that seemed to be the one that incorporated everything that I wanted to do. It incorporated the quantitative aspects of the biological and medical work I’ve been doing and really liked. It felt like there was a lot of room for different directions of my career.    

What were the perspectives of women scientists when you were growing up?

I had a different vision of a woman scientist because my mom was actually a PhD biochemist and a physicist as an undergrad. I grew up thinking women were scientists so I don’t know if I had a good view of what society’s vision was. I know that I struggled with gender identity in college. I felt a lot of need to somehow be doing good in the world and I think that came from some gender identity. I didn’t just want to go out and make a living; I wanted what I was doing to make a difference in the world. At the time it was very difficult for me to reconcile that with doing science. The way science was portrayed, it didn’t talk about science making a difference in the world.  

What is your current research focus and what sparked your interest in that area?

What I am working on now is mechanical regulation of proteins that are involved in disease. I also study thrombosis (blood clotting) which also utilizes sheer stress, one of the mechanism by which blood clots is a high fluid flow. Basically, everything I study has to do with mechanically activated adhesion.
How I got interested was that as a graduate student, I was looking for something that allowed me to both use quantitative modeling and use the biochemistry background I had. I wanted to be protein and cell related, but still use the modeling and physics aspects. So this area of the biophysics of mechanical regulations and how it can give us insight to treatment seemed to really fit that. I really did it because it fascinated me.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

There are two things that I’m proud of: The first would be using the efforts I’ve made in biophysics and applying to solving problems. The other thing I’m proud of is the work I’ve done to help the community understand how these things work. That’s the body of work that I’m best known for and I’m proud of that.

What does being a woman scientist mean to you?

I think one of the things that I realized when I decided to go back for a PhD was that even in this day and age, there’s a still a small number of women in leadership positions in science. Even if I didn’t manage to make my research solve some disease, just being a woman in the field was important. Just by doing what I love, I know I’m still making a difference. That realization gave me permission to follow my dreams and do what I loved.

I also noticed that there are different leadership styles for the people in the scientific field. I’ve watched the field change since I was an undergraduate student and worked with a number of different mentors where the leadership styles were very traditional and “male”. They were more hierarchical and not very emotional. When talking to your boss, you would talk about the work itself rather than your feelings about your work. To me, that model never fit and I couldn’t imagine me being a leader with that model.  It really made a difference for me when I had a female mentor who had a leadership style that I could imagine myself doing. From what I saw, her style was very effective. She left a lot of room for people to have different conversations about their feelings and research as they were developing into scientists. This style makes much more sense to me.  

Do you have any advice for female students pursing the scientific field?

Women are not questioning whether they are good enough, but they are questioning whether it’s the life they want. There are two things that I’ve learned. The first thing is: know that you will change. As you mature, what you want out of life will change and don’t try to guess what you want in the future. You will grow into jobs so don’t close doors. The second thing is that the environment will also change. I tell women that even if it looks like something you wouldn’t want to do now, in ten years it will be a different landscape. One of the things that will make it a different landscape is you being involved.

What are you doing to inspire the next generation of women scientists?

I think the most important thing is to follow my heart and show joy for what I do. I share my excitement with the young women who I mentor. I also make an effort to meet with them and talk with them to talk about their concerns and issues. I help them not solve problems on their own. So, I try to do a lot of one-on-one mentoring. I am also on the board of directors and diversity committee in the biomedical engineering society. We hold workshops for women and try to increase diversity in bioengineering.

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Dee Boersma, Professor, Biology

Why penguins?

I’ve been interested in biology ever since I was little. From collecting butterflies to tadpoles, I’ve always just been interested in the natural world. So I started from a young age and continued to follow my passion.

I think the reason why I picked penguins was because I wanted to work in the Galapagos Islands. I was reading everything about the Galapagos and then I realized nothing was known about the Galapagos penguins. That’s when I started focusing on how the penguin, a cold-water species, live on the equator and survive.

What are you working on now?

Well I am interested in all facets of penguins but my major project is working with Magellanic penguins in Punta Tombo, Argentina. We are starting our 28th year in studying their breeding biology. I’m really interested in the natural history of Magellanic penguins and what it takes for them to survive. This is the largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins in the world. So it’s really a spectacle of nature.

What is your proudest accomplishment in your career?

I guess I’m most proud of the fact that we’ve been able to help penguins survive. In the 1980s, up to 80% of the birds found dead on the beach were penguins covered in oil. Since tanker lanes were moved in the 1990s, we’re getting less than 1% of dead penguins on the beach. So, that reduction in oil pollution affecting penguins is really rewarding and made a lot of our work worthwhile.

What is the message that people should take away from your work?

I would hope that people take away the message that there are incredible life forms on the planet and that people are doing really poorly in terms of helping these other forms of life survive. There are too many people and there’s too much consumption. Those are fundamental issues and unfortunately, people are not paying much attention to our overconsumption and overpopulation. Until we get those in balance, we really are not going to be able to share the globe with other forms of life. That, I think, is a tragedy.   

What were the perspectives of women scientists when you were growing up?

What women scientists? There weren’t very many. Jane Pauley interviewed me a while ago and asked me, “Isn’t it unusual to have a woman be working as field scientist?” and I responded with, “Well, ten or twenty years ago it would be unusual to have a woman as an anchor.” Fortunately, lots of different positions have opened up for women, but that was not true 30 or 40 years ago.

What challenges have you faced through your career?

Most things are based on gender, race, money, access to education, etc. which are all barriers that women face and it’s much harder for women. When I was growing up, abortions weren’t legal so women did not have control over their bodies. Until you have control over your reproductive system, it’s really difficult. When I was in school, women had dorm hours. As my grandfather explained to me, “The reason why we have dorm hours is that so the women have to be in by 11 o’clock at night. When the women go home, the boys go home.” I said to my grandfather, “If you want the boys to go home by 11, give them dorm hours.” But we often have discriminated and continue to discriminate based on gender.

Do you have any advice for young women pursing science?

I think people can do almost anything, but if you are a woman, you cannot be discouraged. You have to continue to move forward and you cannot let any of these barriers prevent you from reaching your dreams. This also means that there will be sacrifices. You can’t do it all; nobody can do it all. That means you have to make choices, which will narrow your options. So, if you are interested in science, don’t narrow your options by staying away from math or some of the science. The more math or technical education you can get, the better it will serve you.

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Kate Huntington, Assistant Professor, Earth & Space Sciences

What sparked your interest in earth sciences?

Actually, my mom is a high school earth science teacher. Ever since I was a little kid, she would take me out on nature walks and geology expeditions to go fossil hunting. Although I don’t study fossils now, her interest in the natural world sparked my interest. Also, my dad is a poly-sci college professor. I was always interested in research because I saw him doing it. So, I ended up becoming a meld of what my parents do.      

I follow ideas that make me curious. So what’s most interesting to me is how landscape and solid things that we see interact with climate over millions of years. What’s also intriguing is how static landforms that we look at today (mountains, plateaus, etc) have changed in the past. I want to understand how the earth surface evolves on the longtime scale.

What are you currently working on?

I have a lot of different projects going on but there is one that I just submitted a proposal for last week. It is a new thermometer tool, called the carbonate clumped isotope thermometer, which is used to measure temperature in the past. I use this tool in the Andes to try to figure out past climate and also past altitude in the Andes. I also have a project looking at erosion and sediments in rivers in the Himalayas.  

What is your proudest accomplishment?

I’m most proud of my collaborations. In whatever thing I’m researching, I’m most motivated by my own curiosity, but I also love working with people who are also interested in what I do and what they do. They really broaden the way I think about things. I like to collaborate with people in related fields so that I’m always learning something new. I’m proud of the fact that I’m always challenging myself to work at the edge of my comfort zone to learn new things.  

What have you found most surprising?

Doing field work in Argentina, five months pregnant, I found out that there are great laws for pregnant women. For example, you get special lines at grocery stores and better parking than handicapped people. It was surprising to me that you would get perks like that. But instead of frowning upon the fact that I was giving talks and serving on NSF panels while I was very pregnant, people just took it in stride.

What is the message that people should take away from your research?

A lot of what I do is method development for applications of new tools. I try to find new ways to apply tools to different kinds of questions from my research. I hope that people can take away not just the idea of new tools being used as a new opportunity to find new things, but rather these tools can be applied to their current work.   

Have you faced any particular challenges because of your gender?

I also just had my first son who is currently three months old. The department has been very supportive of me so far, but that won’t work when I want to attend a conference or workshop. I don’t know how supportive the funding agency will be in the future once they realize that I won’t be as productive. So this is one of the challenges I face from being a woman in science. My male colleagues on the other hand, have also had children as young as mine, but returned to work within ten days. Nobody else can take over a mother’s job.   

Do you have any advice for young women interested in science?

Don’t assume that you are not part of the “in” crowd. Assume that you are. That’s what a lot of my male peers do because it’s just part of their nature. For example, I heard of this meeting in grad school called “The Gilbert Club”. I’ve heard of it for several years and just thought of it as a club that I wasn’t in. So, after years of hearing about it, I finally asked somebody, “Okay, how do I get into this club?” and they told me, “Oh it’s not really a club, you just sign up online.”But when my office mate, who was a guy, first heard about it, his first reaction was “Club?! How do I get in the club?” At first, I found it sort of alien to think this way. But if you just start assuming that you are invited to lunch, that you are part of the conversation, and that people do care about your insights, you build confidence. The confidence you develop will make it easier for you to be included in things. Once you get into the habit of assuming that this is the case, you’ll realize that it really is the case.

What are you doing to inspire the next generation of women scientists?

I hope to lead by example, as far as somebody who can have successful research career, a happy home life, and diverse interests. I also talk with students at all levels, from hosting elementary and middle school students for field trips, to working in high schools as well. I like to get out there and show people that there are women scientists. In positions where I do have leadership, I try to recruit female speakers for colloquiums and conferences so that they are more diverse.