As a young single mother of two, Diana Garcia-Prichard worked as a nurse to support her family. But she signed up for chemistry courses at California State University at Hayward, and she felt her life shift. "Physical science was perfectly suited to my thought processes," she says. "It was the first time in my life that I found something I really wanted to do."
She completed her BS cum laude , entered graduate school at the University of Rochester, and in 4.5 years had a master's and a PhD in chemical physics. She was hired as a research scientist by Eastman Kodak Company, where she is a senior research scientist who also supervises technology-development projects.
"In grad school I knew I wanted to do research, and I thought I would become a professor and help my community back home in California. But my adviser told me it was too difficult for women to get grants or academic jobs. I didn't have the experience to know there were grants for minorities, and my adviser didn't know it. Fortunately I've had a wonderful research experience here. And Kodak, being a big company, has been able to support some of my other goals."
Dr. Garcia-Prichard has worked hard to reform science policy and education, serving on the Clinton-Gore transition team, the National Science Foundation Education and Human Resources Directorate, an American Chemical Society editorial board, and the board of a local community college.
"I want students today to be better informed than I was about careers. For example, they need to know what kinds of grants there are, and who can get them. Also, there's a huge gap between what students learn in universities and what's needed in an industry workplace. Here I work in physical chemistry, but I also have to be able to collaborate with materials scientists, engineers, and chemists.
"And they should know that the corporate environment is changing today. Shareholders are forcing corporations to downsize staff, but the work still has to get done.
"Choosing the right adviser can help—someone who not only is a good scientist, but is savvy about careers and understands what you need. If you pick a famous scientist who is not a good caregiver, you end up staying in school too long and doing a lot of their work. I was done in 4.5 years, and part of the reason was that I stood up to my adviser. I told him, if you want someone to do your lab work, you'll have to find someone else. I'm here for a chemistry degree, not a degree in plumbing."
That bold approach will not always be successful. The best advice in dealing with an adviser is to be honest, persistent, and communicative. Because your goals and those of your faculty adviser are not usually the same, a good relationship requires continued effort, good judgment, and good will—on both sides.
