Barbara Jacak

Barbara joined Berkeley in 2015 as a faculty senior scientist, and served as the division director of the Nuclear Science Division between 2015 and February 2021. She is a professor in the physics department at UC Berkeley since 2015 and before that she held faculty positions in SUNY Stony Brook and University of New Mexico. She worked in Los Alamos National Laboratory as J.R. Oppenheimer Fellow and later a staff member after receiving her PhD degree in chemical physics from Michigan State University in 1984. She has a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from UC, Berkeley in 1979. She serves on multiple committees, including the steering committee for the EIC users group (2020-2021) and National Academies' Board on Physics and Astronomy as the chair (2014-2018). Barbara was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 and American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2016. She won the APS division of nuclear physics Bonner Prize and DOE office of science distinguished scientists fellows award in 2019.

What inspires you to work in STEM or operations?

I always wanted to know "why?", even as a small child. So, it was natural for me to become a scientist so I could find out why things work the way they do.

Working in STEM is fun and exciting! I get to learn new things all the time. There is nothing quite like the feeling that you are the first person on the planet to know something new! Equally exciting is the opportunity to share those new things with younger people, and help them have their own aha moments.

What excites you about your work at Berkeley Lab?

Combining the strengths of Berkeley lab with those of UC Berkeley is truly amazing. There is nothing our teams cannot do! The view is pretty nice, too.

How can our country engage more women, girls, and members of other underrepresented groups in STEM or operations?

We need to communicate the fact that science is interesting and fun, and that a lifetime of discovery is worth the initial investment of learning how to do things that are hard. We also need to show the diversity of people who are working in STEM and operations. We don't all look the same or bring the same experiences; that is a great thing, which makes our groups more creative and working together more interesting. Women and people from underrepresented groups are not somehow strange for working in these fields.

Do you have tips you would recommend for someone looking to enter your field of work?

Follow your passion. Any endeavor will have parts that are fun, and some that feel more like drudgery. You should always focus on and follow the science. Then you will not feel that you have to map out your entire career from the beginning, and the inevitable not-so-fun parts will be a lot less annoying. If someone had asked me to predict my career path when I was just getting started, I would never have guessed it would look the way it did.

When you have free time, what are your hobbies?

Cooking, scuba diving, reading, travel (on hold for now, of course, along with the diving).