Peresis S. Drell - 2010 SPIE Women in Optics Planner
Professor, Stanford Univ.
Director, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Country of birth: USA
Country of residence: USA
Educational background: BA in math and physics, Wellesley College; PhD in physics, Univ. of California, Berkeley
A typical work day.
I interact with people-scientists, engineers, technical support people, and fi nance people. A typical day is fi lled by meeting individuals or small groups. At least twice a week I make a presentation before a group.
What I enjoy most.
I was Deputy Project Manager on a satellite payload that's now in orbit taking data on the high-energy gamma ray sky (FERMI). I loved the technical work and the thrill of the project coming together to launch.
Words of wisdom.
For large projects you have to be very strong technically, but you also have to be good at working with people. In science training we don't emphasize the people side of things enough.