Hi,
I have been following this group for just a month or so now. I do not have
the luxury of picking and choosing which postings to read, since I had to
subscribe by e-mail (my company is "security conscious" and as such does not
have a constant Internet connection). But I have found most of the messages
to be helpful and interesting. I finished my M.S. in Biomedical Engineering
last September and have been working since February for a biotech company.
My thesis was on the application of the perceptron algorithm to the functional
classification of proteins. This was in a Molecular Eng. department within
the college of eng., and I have a B.S. in biochem. It is a very interesting
combination, actually, (computers/engineering/biology) and I see the field
opening wide in the next few years. I have already made the decision not to
pursue a Ph.D., for a number of reasons, and I'm happy with my decision. So
I guess I look at the women/career/kids/etc. issues from the corporate or
industry viewpoint, instead of from academia, where it seems mostly everyone
else is. Since I am fairly new to these conferences (I subscribe to bio-soft
and info-gcg as well) I haven't posted anywhere else. Yet.
I worked for 5 years for another company before this one, in the high-tech
field. I have never really run into any kind of prejudice (at least that I
was aware of) because of my gender. Perhaps because I am young enough to have
missed the more difficult beginning years of women in the workforce.
My husband and I don't have children yet, and we also wonder where we would
ever fit them in. My husband is self-employed, so although I work a fairly
standard 40ish hour work week, when I go home at night I do his typing and
bookkeeping, etc. My second job! There just aren't enough hours in the day.
That is about all I have to say for now. I will happily correspond with
anyone who has any questions or interests that they want to share with me.
-Maureen Colbert
mcolbert at genetics.com
