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Meet: Kate Creegan
ChemistExxon Biomedical Sciences
What did you want to be when you were 10 years old?
When I was 10 I knew I was going to be an artist - in fact when I was 20 I knew I was going to be an artist. I always loved drawing and reading. All through elementary school I drew and painted for fun. When I got to high school I took every art class I could get. (I did not take many math or science classes.) When I went to college I majored in Art.
Who inspired you to pursue your current career?
In my junior year of high school I decided I should take a chemistry course because I knew NOTHING about the world around me and about how and why stuff worked. I filled out my registration and went to my advisor. She refused to sign my registration because she said I had did not have the right background to take the course. She said I did not belong in that class and that I would be in danger of flunking out.
I eventually persuaded her that I would be willing to study very hard to stay on top of the work. The class was EXTREMELY difficult for me. I probably spent 30 hours a week studying just for that class. If I had taken the background science and math classes in high school this would have been a lot easier!
So in a way, my high school advisor inspired me, probably because I wanted to prove her wrong!
What educational background do you have, and is it typical of your field?
I went to a small girls college in the city and they actually didn't offer any chemistry classes. I had to take it at our brother school which was an engineering college. So I was taking first year chemistry for engineers! The first semester I got a B and I was extremely proud of myself. I had done my absolute best. I would have required a brain transplant to do better! The second semester was even harder I cried my way through the final exam. It was very humiliating how many questions I didn't know the answer to. But I'm very stubborn. I worked on the exam until I finished and did my best. I got a C! I was just as proud as before. I knew I had done my best and I had passed. I had never worked at school that hard and it felt very good to me.
I would have loved to had A's but it turned out the more important thing to me was not really the grade, but that I had fought with a very hard subject and conquered it instead of letting it beat me. I know it sounds hokey but it was a very powerful motivator for me.
I eventually earned a Bachelors of science degree in chemistry and I later earned a Masters degree in chemistry. The degrees are fairly typical for my field, although generally many scientists have Ph.D. degrees. With a Masters degree you are sort of an assistant - working on experiments in research areas determined by scientists with Ph.D. degrees. Although with a Masters degree you are generally expected to design experiments independently, work independently, and write-up and present your own results.
What kinds of things do you find most exciting about your work?
I think the most exciting thing was when I discovered a new molecule. I saw evidence of it in a separation I was doing with some new, known materials. I worked on the separation until I was able to get some of this newer material and then worked with other scientists to discover what it was (C60 monoxide) and its structure. I will never forget the moment when I discovered it.
Today, I think one of the most fun things I do is molecular modeling on a Cray supercomputer. Drawing the molecules is fantastic, and then I get to do all sorts of analysis with computer programs to predict their behavior.
I'm still shocked at myself in a way because I NEVER would have imagined this life I've been leading based on the first half of my life. I have done some phenomenal things and when I'm doing these things there's a little girl inside of me going "Wow! I never dreamed this was possible".
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