1. What was a significant location on campus for you? Why?
I loved Lake Carnegie: I loved rowing on it, running around it, skating on it. At that time, we could skate up and down its full length year after year. I was on women’s crew the entire four years of my Princeton experience and I spent hours and hours at the lake. We women on the crew had a super tiny piece of the tanks for our “locker room”. There were no lockers and only one shower. It was a glorified bathroom in the corner of the tanks (where we rowed indoors) that was allotted for the women. We could not use the main boathouse for our changing space because the head men’s coach was not even happy that we were on the lake at all.
2. What was a defining (or pivotal) moment of your life?
A pivotal moment in my life at Princeton was when I met David Crerar, a geology professor who taught geochemistry. After taking his course, I slowly decided to become a geochemist. Eventually, I earned an A.B. in Chemistry at Princeton, and then matriculated into the PhD program at Princeton to work with Crerar. I have now been working more than 30 years as an aqueous geochemist – Crerar’s specialty. I even work at his alma mater where he got his PhD, Penn State, where I am a professor of geosciences. Unfortunately, Crerar died very young, not
that long after I graduated with my PhD.
3. How did your personal identity shape your Princeton experience?
I have a lot of energy and I love sports and the out of doors so I spent most of my time at Princeton running, working out, rowing, playing volleyball, skating, running, lifting weights…hardly ever changing out of athletic clothes. I remember going to Ivy Club once for dinner in sweats after crew practice. They used to stand up for every woman who entered for dinner. They didn’t stand that time (many were my friends from crew—why stand?).
4. If you could relive your time at Princeton, what would you do differently?
Maybe I wish that I had participated more in changing the elite culture at Princeton. But I made great friends and we still go out of our way to see one another every 2 or 3 years for mini reunions. Princeton gave me great friends and I learned what I needed to learn to have a super career that keeps me happy.
5. If you could relive your time at Princeton, what would you keep the same?
I wouldn’t keep everything the same. I think the selective eating clubs were odd in that they shaped the social scene in ways that were elitist. I came from public school and I remember that there were ways of dressing, socializing, and talking that were foreign to me at Princeton. It wasn’t until I was a junior that I started to realize that a lot of people at Princeton had a lot more money than we had and had been schooled at private schools in ways to dress or act that were foreign to me. It never really bothered me but it was culture shock, once I could see the culture divide.
6. What part of your life are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my family: I am proud to have nurtured (or at least benefitted from) a wonderful marriage and my husband and I are proud to have raised two wonderful daughters, both of whom cherish their friends, work hard in the chosen fields, and love the out-of-doors.