Dr. Vrtilek with students. Photo Courtesy of Jonathan McDowell
What did you want to be when you grew up?
The first thing I wanted to be was a teacher. By age 10, I wanted to be an author. And by 8th grade, I decided I would do some kind of science.
What inspired you to work in science?
I have always enjoyed things related to science. I liked to take things apart and find out how they work (I was always the one fixing radios, vacuum cleaners and sewing machines around our house). Math has also always been my favorite subject in school.
Writing fiction and English essays was always challenging for me. It turns out that writing well is VERY IMPORTANT if you want to be a scientist. From lab reports to research papers, writing well is essential. One must also present results at meetings and symposiums, which demand good oral communication skills.
What do you do at work?
My primary work is research. Most of my research has been trying to understand a certain class of objects known as X-ray binaries. Binary means it is a star system with two stars going around each other. Unlike our Sun which emits most of its energy in visible light, X-ray binaries emit most of their energy in X-rays. I try to study these objects by looking at all their forms of radiation, including visible and X-ray. I have used the Hubble Space Telescope several times, as well as many other satellites and a few ground-based observatories.
What do you do when you are not at work?
I love spending time with my family. I have a daughter who is 17 and my husband is also an Astrophysicist. I like to read nature and travel books, biographies, and science fiction. Most recently, I have taken up scuba diving! I have been to the reefs near San Diego, Puerto Rico, and on the Great Barrier Reef.
Source: Hubblesite.org
Accretion disc for black hole. Image from ESA, NASA, and Felix Mirabel (French Atomic Energy Commission and Institute for Astronomy and Space Physics/Conicet of Argentina)
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I love this article. I hope more young women go into science!