PSU Magazine Fall 2013

fishing had his life saved by X-ray technology when it was new," she says. "Today I use X-rays to search the ori– gins of life in the microstructure of minerals." ady attended a community college and the University of Wisconsin before heading to the West Coast with her geology-major hus– band, Larry. They ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, where he became a musician and she worked full time and finished her bachelor's at University of California at Berkeley. Encouraged to do an honors thesis in mineralogy, Cady used electronmicroscopy to study sed imentary materials. She earned her doctorate at Berkeley in 1993. After a postdoctoral fellowship at NASA's Ames Research Center, Cady continued on as a research associate for the National Research Council and then went to work for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute. There she used information she col– lected from active hydrotherma l sys– tems, including the hot prings of Yellowstone and in New Zealand, to establish criteria for recognizing and assessing ev idence of life in samples brought back from the space missions to Mars. As Cady argued in a 1998 publication on the subj ect, "Earth– based investigations of potential ancient paleobiological repositories and their modem analog microbial ecosystems lie at the heart of the search for evidence of life elsewhere." Cady says the freedom to be cre– ative is the chief advantage of doing research in an academic setting. She al o flourishes as a teacher, with a rep– utation for giving time to her students. An excellent photographer and author of numerous publications, Cady recently was chosen as the first editor of the new journal Astrobiology. She collaborates on projects with col– leagues from University of Puget Sound, University of Colorado, MIT, the Swedish Museum of Natural His– tory, and University of Auckland in New Zealand. "Science is fun," says Cady, a sentiment voiced over and over again by the women who research and teach science at Portland State. 0 10 PSU MAGAZINE FALL 2001 More stories to tell A booklet comprising the entire 23 profiles written by Nancy Porter is in the works through the Co llege of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Below are excerpts from six of it other profiles. Patricia Backlar, research associate professor of bioethics, became inter– ested in the study of ethical issues in medicine following the diagno is of schizophrenia in one of her children. Mildred Bennett, professor emeritus of mathematical sciences, wa the only woman among 400 men in Brooklyn Polytechnic lnstitute's electrical engineering program dur– ing the 1940s. Marjorie Enneking, professor of mathematical sciences, is a fifth– generation Oregonian and the first in her family to complete college. She is lead investigator on a $5 mil– lion National Science Foundation grant funding professional develop– ment for K-12 teachers in Oregon. Elaine Spencer, former associate professor of chemistry, was one of 22 female faculty members who sued the Oregon State Sy tern of Higher Education for di crimination in the 1980s. Prof. Spencer died in 1998. Gwendolyn Shusterman, associate professor of chemistry, says, "When I entered Berkeley in the 1980s, I made a conscious decision to act professionally, and not to do any– thing in dress or behavior that would call attention to myself as a woman." At a PSU sympos ium on women and science, Carol Wilson, assistant pro– fessor of biology, remembers hearing Prof. Gert Rempfer's inspirational command, "Women, be scientists!" Prof. Wilson felt she was speaking directly to her. Sherry Cady