Christine Milcarek

I attribute my success to my family, especially my mother who was my role model and worked throughout most of my childhood. My family valued education and hard work, which shaped who I became. I also have to credit my husband, who has been very supportive throughout my career. I've been very successful at picking the right husband, and his support has been instrumental in everything I've accomplished. So when I boil it down, it really comes down to family both the family I grew up with and the family I chose.

The best career advice I ever received was learning that when you go to graduate school in the sciences, they actually pay you and you get a stipend, as opposed to the humanities where you have to pay tuition and pay your own way. That was a revelation to me, and it allowed me to go to graduate school even though the stipend at the time was fairly small. I was able to live on that stipend and not have to pay tuition. I tell all young women about this because it's something important to think about. If you get a degree in the sciences as opposed to something like history, they'll pay for your grad school. That's probably why I didn't go into medicine, because I would have had to pay my own way.

I would encourage young women to seek careers in the hard sciences and not be afraid of it. I think there's been a lot of emphasis recently on what women have done, like with the movie Hidden Figures and media events like that, but I just want to encourage young women to get into science and not be afraid of it. We need your voices.

I still think that it's difficult for men to accept women in the field. I don't think that I was asked to speak at meetings as often as some of my colleagues, and I don't think that I got postdoctoral trainees to come work for me as frequently as some of my colleagues. Even going back to high school in the 60s, I realized at recent reunions that boys were given opportunities to apply for scholarships and attend extra special courses that I wasn't necessarily given. I found out that one of them was encouraged to apply for a scholarship that I could well have qualified for, but I wasn't informed about. It just feels a little hurtful that I wasn't told about certain things, though I can't say I didn't do well overall.

The values most important to me are helping other people and being truthful and honest. That's really what I try to live by in both my work and personal life.