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about
VICTORIA* (or
Victoria's Secrets) The nature of self, the nature of time: What is it that sees and thinks? Where did yesterday go and why can't we bring it back?
“Such questions bothered me as a child," says Victoria. "My path into science started with a sense of ordinary life being magical and inscrutable." Majoring in physics was a natural choice for her when she enrolled at the University of the Philippines. Physics offered wonder (time dilation), paradox (wave or particle?), elegant expression (Maxwell’s equations), all inclusiveness (grand unification), discipline (verifiable results) and whimsy (Schrödinger's cat).
But there was also the parallel universe of music that enticed Victoria. She played flute with the youth orchestra, then performed with professional ensembles and gave flute lessons while teaching college physics.
Until one rainy day, she figured that hers was a lesser star in the firmament of musical talent, that science would open more doors for her in more places on the planet, and decided to apply to graduate schools in the US. Training for a doctorate in physics at the University of Pennsylvania which included the usual coursework, she then focused on experiments at the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter on campus as well as measurements done off-campus in places like the Brookhaven High Flux Beam Reactor, National Synchrotron Light Source and Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source.
While in graduate school, Victoria found time for other pursuits as well - occasional flute performances, intensive kung fu practice, Buddhist retreats, some political activism, hiking and motorcycling. After 5 years, she wrote and defended her thesis, and gave her traditional departing-PhD pizza seminar entitled "Zen and the Art of Rotating Anode Maintenance" (in honor of the x-ray generator used to gather most of her data).
Then she rode her Honda 250 Rebel from Philadelphia to Irvine, CA where
she sold her bike to buy a plane ticket to France. Hardly speaking any
French when she arrived, Victoria first worked as a post-doc at the Institut
des Matériaux de Nantes, subsequently becoming a full-fledged researcher
with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. She used a few
more big machines while in France - reactors at the Institut Laue-Langevin
and Laboratoire Leon Brillouin plus the European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility; supervised four PhD students; studied some interesting structures,
phase transitions and unusual behaviors in ferroelectrics, magnetic materials
and stretched polymers; and levitated a few protein crystals using lasers.
She also picked up saxophone playing and did a lot of traveling. After almost 12 years of great Bordeaux, baguette and beurre blanc in the land of more 350 “fromages,” Victoria turned the page on basic research and joined NOVA R&D, Inc., a small company in Riverside, CA specializing in advanced radiation detection and digital x-ray imaging.
It was a whole different world - developing next-generation devices while running a small business (perennial proposal writing, design review deadlines, getting product out the door, and by the way, are we making payroll?). But for Victoria a gestalt-like shift had by then occurred in her perception of research - from one of inquiry and vision to another of responsibility and mission. She prides herself on contributing significantly to the company's transition from mostly R&D to greater commercial activity serving the needs of medicine, security and space exploration.
Victoria now works with the UCSD Technology Transfer Office, believing ever more that the value of invention is best measured by its positive impact on society and our day-to-day lives.
On the side, she keeps an eye on para-gliders soaring over Torrey Pines and dreams of someday experiencing the thrill of unmotorized flight. She is also a contributing editor at FanFaire, the webzine that celebrates music (www.fanfaire.com). Science education, likewise a dormant passion of hers, briefly flared with a lecture on "The Universe in Your Genes" for the UCR Copernicus Project (science teacher internship program) and will hopefully catch fire at the San Diego Science Festival. Parting words: "Mais il faut cultiver notre jardin." ("Candide" by Voltaire)
* Victoria was a FanFaire-sponsored
NIFTY FIFTY Lecturer at the first San Diego Science Festival. The
lecture was given to middle schoolers at the Memorial Preparatory
for Scholars and Athletes on March 4, 2009.
CLICK
HERE to view a video of Victoria's Nifty Fifty Lecture.
On April 4,
2009 FanFaire participated in the Festival's grand finale
- EXPO DAY in BALBOA PARK - where it had a crowd-drawing booth on
"The Physics of Music and the Music of You", expanding on
the theme SCIENCE + MUSIC = FUN! CLICK
HERE to view a video of FanFaire on Expo Day in Balboa
Park.
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