SIRTF Profiles: Betsy Wilson

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I'm an engineer. Not the kind that builds "things," but the kind that builds information. Engineers make the spacecraft and information systems that get scientists the data they want. I like being an engineer because my job is never boring, and I've been doing this for 26 years.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a biologist. Biology is still fascinating to me and I like to read about it. I don't think, just like space, that we'll ever "know it all." But when I was in college, I realized that although I found it interesting, it was not the right career for me. I got B's and C's in my biology classes, and I wasn't good at laboratory work, although I enjoyed it anyway. But one semester I took a computer class, just because everyone said computers were "the next big thing." It was very interesting and I got an A+, easily. So I took another class, and got another A. By then it was starting to dawn on me that I liked computer work, and obviously was better at it than biology. So I switched my studies over.

My first full-time job was here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the same area I am in now - telemetry processing. Telemetry is all the information that is sent back to earth from a spacecraft by the radio transmitter. The better I do my job, the better and more data the scientists get. I like that because I feel I'm doing something important. I enjoy learning more about astronomy as I work here, and I know that my hard word helps the scientists. When I go jogging in the early morning and look up at the planets shining in the sky (and I try to keep track of where they are), I think "There's one of my spacecraft, orbiting around that planet!", and feel good.

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