QUESTION:
In Science we have to find a unique scientist . We would like to ask you a
few questions PLEASE!  We think a unique scientist is someone who people
don't think of as a scientist . We think you are one of them . PLEASE
answer these questions .

1) Describe your career
2) How long have you been doing your job?
3) What type of schooling /training did your job require ? What type of
science course have you taken .
4) Do you consider yourself a scientist ?why or why not?
5) Describe some of your daily tasks that might require you to have a
specific science knowledge ?

ANSWER from Mary Urquhart on September 25, 1999:
1)  I am a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory.  I do computer modeling of the predicted temperature
behavior of the two tiny probes of the Mars Microprobe Mission, Deep
Space 2, which will arrive at Mars on December 3rd.  I recently
completed graduate school, and I am trained in both astrophysics and
geophysics. My area of emphasis is planetary science.

2)  After graduate school, about 3 months.  In graduate school, about 6
years.

3)  I have a Ph.D. and a Master of Science degree in Astrophysical,
Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences.  Before graduate school, I received
Bachelor of Science degrees in both Physics (with an emphasis in
Astrophysics) and Geophysics.

In high school, I took all of the math and science classes I could.  In
college, I took mostly physics, geology, geophysics, and astronomy
classes.  In graduate school, most of my classes were on the planets and
the solar system, and I also took more physics and astrophysics classes.

4)  Yes.  I do science every day.  Even if I did another job, I think I
would still consider myself a scientist.  A major part of being a
scientist is how a person looks at the world around him or her.
Scientists are explorers who are trying to learn about the world, and
understand it in a systematic, logical way.  I, for example, enjoy
learning about other branches of science that I haven't really been
trained in, like biology, as well as learning more about my own field.
I also enjoy teaching science to other people.

5)  My work requires me to understand how different materials will respond
to heating or cooling.  To do this, I need to have a deep understanding
about how heat is transferred in a material, and how the properties of a
material affect heat flow.

I also need to understand what geologic and weather processes are
happening on Mars, and how different materials that could be found at
the impact site of the Mars Microprobes, like dust, dust and ice, sand,
or sand and ice, would reflect those processes.