10 Women With Awesome Jobs You’ve Never Heard Of In The Sciences
12:30 pm, October 10th | by Sarah Devlin
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1. Dorothy F. Farrell, Nanotechnology Development Projects Manager, NCI Office of Cancer Nanotechnology Research
"In her role as a projects manager for the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, Dr. Dorothy Farrell oversees and manages nanotechnology development projects, implements new nanotechnology development initiatives, and evaluates the effectiveness of Alliance programs. She acts as a technical resource for Alliance members by promoting collaboration among researchers and assisting industry representatives in identifying opportunities for collaboration with the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Farrell received her doctorate in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University, where her thesis project focused on the synthesis and characterization of self-assembled arrays of magnetic nanoparticles. She then spent two years at University College London on a Royal Society USA Research Fellowship, where she worked on the preparation of nanoparticle-antibody conjugates for use in cancer therapy. She returned to the United States to work at the Naval Research Laboratory, as part of the National Research Council's Research Associate Program, developing a poly(ethylene glycol) based ligand to prepare biocompatible iron oxide nanoparticles. Dr. Farrell received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Brooklyn College, City University of New York." - National Cancer Institute
2. Ana-Paula Bernardes, Environmental Engineer for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
"Thirty-five years old and the mother of a three-year-old child, Ana-Paula Bernades graduated in environmental engineering at the Grenoble Polytechnic. She arrived at CERN in 1999 and soon after started work on building safety and ergonomics. In 2003 she became section leader within CERN's Safety Commission and has since worked on the LHC's environmental impact, particularly on the management of acoustic disturbances generated by the sites around the 27 km ring, in collaboration with EdF. When the LHC begins operating, she will be in charge of personnel safety training and will be a consultant on general safety, acoustics and ergonomics." - CERN Courier
3. Melissa Cragin, AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
"Cragin is among more than 200 scientists and engineers who will spend a year working in federal agencies or congressional offices. The S&T Policy Fellows contribute their training and expertise in public service to the U.S. government while learning first-hand about policymaking and implementation at the federal level.
The fellowships are operated as part of the AAAS mandate to “advance science and serve society.” The aim is to foster evidence-based policy and practice by engaging scientists and engineers from a broad range of disciplines, backgrounds and career stages to apply knowledge and analytical skills for well-informed policies, regulations and programs, and to build leadership capacity for a strong S&T enterprise that benefits all people." - The iSchool at Illinois
4. Lori B. Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator
"Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lori Beth Garver began her duties as the deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on July 17, 2009.
As deputy administrator, Garver is NASA's second in command. She works closely with the administrator to provide overall leadership, planning, and policy direction for the agency. Together with the NASA administrator, Garver represents NASA to the Executive Office of the President, Congress, heads of government agencies, international organizations, and external organizations and communities. She also oversees the work of NASA’s functional offices."- NASA.gov
5. Paula S. Apsell, Senior Executive Producer, NOVA and NOVA ScienceNow, and Director, WGBH Science Unit
"In 1985, Apsell was asked to take over the reins at NOVA, where she is now Senior Executive Producer and Director of the WGBH Science Unit. As well as overseeing the production of NOVA documentaries and miniseries for television, she has directed the series' diversification into other media-most notably online, where NOVA is the most-visited site on PBS.org. NOVA can also be found in classrooms nationwide, where it is the most widely used video resource among high school science teachers.
In January 2005, Apsell introduced a NOVA spinoff in NOVA scienceNOW, a critically acclaimed science newsmagazine hosted formerly by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and now by New York Times technology columnist David Pogue. Other recent signature NOVA and Science Unit productions include "The Elegant Universe," "Origins," "Einstein's Big Idea," "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," "Making Stuff," and the large-format feature "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure."
Today, NOVA is the most popular science series on American television and online. Under Apsell's leadership, NOVA has won every major broadcasting award, some many times over, including the Emmy, the Peabody, the AAAS Science Journalism Award, and the Gold Baton duPont-Columbia, as well as an Academy Award® nomination for "Special Effects." In 1998, the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation awarded NOVA its first-ever Public Service Award." - PBS.org
6. Renate Christ, Secretary of the International Panel on Climate Change
"Dr. Renate Christ was appointed Secretary of the IPCC in 2004 after having served as Deputy Secretary from 1999 to 2004. She holds a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Biology and Geosciences from the University of Salzburg. A citizen of Austria, Dr. Christ is the general manager of the IPCC Secretariat. Prior to her assignment with the IPCC Renate Christ worked for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Commission. She participated in the negotiations for the United Nations Framework on Climate Change as member of the Austrian Delegation as well as in the development of the Kyoto Protocol." - IPCC
7. Robin Murphy, Texas A&M University Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR) Director
"CRASAR’s mission is to improve disaster preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery through the development and adoption of robots and related technologies. Its goal is to create a “community of practice” for rescue robots that motivates fundamental research, supports technology transfer, and educates students, response professionals, and the public.
CRASAR makes a wide range of small land, sea, and air robots available for use by responders at no charge through the Roboticists Without Borders program.
It helps organize and sponsor conferences such as the annual IEEE Safety Security Rescue Robotics conference and workshops such as the recent NSF-JST-NIST Workshop on Rescue Robots." - Crasar.org
8. Véronique Khiermer, Executive Editor and Head of Researcher Services, NPG at Nature
"[Khiermer received her] BS, MS, and PhD, chemistry and molecular biology at [the] Université Libre de Bruxelles. [She moved on to a] postdoctoral fellowship in molecular virology at the Gladstone Institute at the University of California San Francisco.
Her areas of responsibility [at Nature ] include: editorial policies, editorial quality assurance, research community outreach, Authors & Referees services programme, researcher services development." - Nature
9. Virginia Greco, Surveyor at CERN
"Born in the southern Italian city of Lecce, Virginia Greco is 29 and has a degree in electronics engineering from Pisa University. She is part of a team of engineers in charge of the design and installation of electronics for data acquisition in TOTEM, one of the LHC's smaller experiments designed to focus on forward particles. Research has always been her passion and has brought her to work in many different international laboratories, from Fermilab to CERN. She also studies theatre, has worked as a radio journalist and is interested in politics, movements in ecology and international cooperation." - CERN Courier
10. Diane L. Souvaine, Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery
"Souvaine, a professor in Tufts School of Engineering, was named a fellow for contributions to computational geometry and for her work on behalf of the computing community by ACM, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society. Her research in computational geometry, the study of algorithms to understand geometric problems, has implications in retrieval and storage of data.
"Geometric data structures have become pervasive and an integral part of every day life," said Souvaine. "These structures can be queried to provide driving directions or the name of the nearest Italian restaurant. The goal is to organize data so that it needs less storage space, and so that information can be retrieved quickly."
Souvaine is also a member of the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation, the body that acts as an advisory body to the president and Congress. She was one of only eight female ACM members elected as a fellow this year." - Tufts Now
[Photos via Tufts , University of Illinois , Texas A&M , Chinese Academy of Sciences , CERN , Knowledge Transfer- CERN , NASA , Flickr , Linkages ]
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Science | Slide Shows | Women in STEM
Perhaps you are already an expert in careers in the sciences, but we suspect that there are plenty of organizations doing groundbreaking work in the sciences that most people have never heard of. Here are ten women with awesome jobs in a range of fields, proving that making a living as a scientist doesn’t have to be about being stuck in a lab. 
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