Many scientists can recall the moment that inspired their
interest in science. For Tania Ruiz (pictured left) that moment
occurred at the age of six. She says, "After seeingStar
Warsat a drive-in in 1977, astrophysics became my passion. I
spent almost a year trying to locate the Big Dipper over my house.
I recall standing on the top of the front steps, finding the
asterism [a cluster of stars or a constellation], and then the next
thing I remember is sitting on the floor of my bedroom in a daze. I
said out loud, 'I want to be an astronomer.'"
Ruiz, 34, is currently manager of the i-Science Centre for
Interdisciplinary Science at the University of Leicester in
England, and has launched "SETting an Example: Women in Science,
Engineering and Technology," a program that provides a support
network for female science, engineering, and technology (SET)
students at Leicester. The project's goal is to increase the number
of woman entering science careers (see sidebar).
Ruiz's diverse experiences as a woman in the sciences provides a
background for helping others attain their goals.
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Women Scientists in the U.K.
Ruiz's Centre will soon be supported by the U.K. government
program U.K. Resource
Centre for Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology (UKRC)
, created in 2004 to increase the participation and position of
women in SET careers. When the UKRC grant commences in October
2005, one of Ruiz's first projects will be the creation of a "Big
Sisters" mentoring system, in which third and fourth-year
undergraduate students will mentor first and second year students.
Mentors will be trained and the mentor/mentee pairs will select
each other. As the program develops, graduate students will begin
to mentor those in the upper levels. All the "Sisters" will log
onto their own virtual network.
Ruiz structured much of project after the Space for Women
program at her old stomping grounds, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics. With career days, workshops, speakers, even a new
publication, Ruiz and her colleagues will encourage more women to
enter her field.
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Although Ruiz became an astronomer, the research phase of her
scientific career was relatively short-lived. "I'm not a research
scientist anymore," she says. I went from research science, to
school science education, to science educational software, to
museum science communication, now to program management in
university science education. It's all related to science, but
grows ever more dimly related to being a [research] scientist."
The Budding Scientist
Ruiz was born in New Jersey. For her parents, she says, "Think
Lucy and Desi" [from the "I Love Lucy" television sitcom]. Her
father is Hispanic, her mother a red-headed American of German and
Irish extraction. Her story differs from "Lucy" in one important
respect: her parents divorced when she was young and she moved
between the two families a number of times.
Ruiz had a normal childhood. She loved the rock group KISS,
played Atari games, and read a lot. But she also clawed through
slime looking for ants and tadpoles and kept crayfish and a
cockroach as pets. "I am still the weird chick who picks up
earthworms that have strayed onto the pavement and puts them back
in a safer place."
Ruiz was a good student, but she had some trouble when she
entered high school, by her standards anyway. "I had difficulty in
math," she says. "By this I mean I got an occasional B, and once, a
C. I was starting to believe that I was not gifted enough to become
a scientist. [But] I forced my head down and ignored those thoughts
and focused only on science."
Academics versus Economics
With her dream of becoming an astronomer in mind, Ruiz limited
her college choices to those with astrophysics or astronomy degree
programs. She originally set her sights on Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland, because of its massive telescope in
Arizona. But when she went to an interview there, the admissions
officer encouraged her to apply to Ivy League schools. She
considered Cornell because Carl Sagan was there, but that was
before she learned he only taught once in a while. A friend
convinced her to apply to Harvard, too.
All three schools accepted her, but she decided to move to
Cambridge and study at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics. "Unlike many Harvard undergrads, I had to work to
afford to go there. This was my social and academic downfall, but
my career boon."
Ruiz worked at a small radio telescope atop the Harvard
observatory, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore,
and the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket Island in
Massachusetts. Each experience brought her that much closer to
becoming an astronomer. The research completed at one of her summer
jobs allowed her to publish a peer-reviewed journal article, but
one of the most gratifying things that resulted from her summers of
work was meeting and working with Sam Palmer, an engineer at the
Harvard observatory, and Christine Jones, a Harvard astrophysicist.
Both are still mentors.
Though her summers were a great success, Ruiz continued to
struggle during the rest of the year, even failing a math course.
"Harvard," she says, "was unsupportive, to say the least." She even
wondered if she had a learning disability.
"But," she says, "people hit me over the head with the idea that
failing one math course does not mean you are incapable of doing
math." Her ability was there, she says, but her faith had to be
rekindled.
B.A. in a Ph.D. world
Ruiz received her B.A. from Harvard, but without a Ph.D., one
cannot go far in science in the United States, she says. "So, I was
stuck." She quit school and became vice president of a dot-com
company. One of her early projects involved creating a Web site for
Christine Jones.
NASA was interested in getting more space-related programs into
the schools, and grants were available. So Ruiz did general space
education for NASA's Space Science Office and then outreach for its
Chandra Observatory. "I learned educational theory and the
physiology of learning so I could write a science curriculum
appropriate to children." She spent thousands of hours teaching
kids.
Other jobs included being a teaching assistant at Harvard's
night-school astronomy classes, developing multimedia products for
shows like "Reading Rainbow" and "Bear in the Big Blue House," and
working at the Museum of Science in Boston, where she built
exhibits and masterminded live performances, slide shows, news
releases, and other promotional and production projects.
Eventually, however, some interpersonal issues began to take their
toll. "I had been used to working in academia," Ruiz says, "where
you worked for the work's sake. But there are others who work for
their own sake, for awards, praise, and power. I dislike this type
of person greatly." Then she left Boston.
Working Across the Pond
Ruiz's diverse experiences as a woman in the sciences provides a
background for helping others attain their goals. Still, even in
England, women and minorities can find themselves slighted.
"Mentors are everywhere," Ruiz says. "If you have enough courage
and desire to admit you need one. Not enough people recognize the
great personal evolution they can begin when they connect with
people they admire."
Star Lawrence is a freelancer writer and may be
reached at jkellaw@aol.com.