Carol B. Davies

I am a Research Specialist. I develop mathematical methods and write computer codes to help in the design of space vehicle configurations. I use a lot of math, especially 3-D geometry and vector analysis. Although I work on high-speed space vehicles, my computer codes can be applied to many other areas and are used by many businesses, universities and other NASA centers throughout the United States.

I am always logged on to my computer on my desk. I have a Macintosh Power PC and frequently use the latest Silicon Graphics workstations to visualize vehicle shapes and grid configurations.

I started work at NASA Ames as a contractor in 1968. From 1968 to 1976 I worked on a variety of projects, including analyzing experimental data from the Pioneer Space Project and the development of an Inlet Boundary Layer code. In 1976, I moved to the Republic of Singapore and joined the University of Singapore. There, I taught Statistics and was a consultant in the Computer Science Dept.

On my return to the U.S. in 1980, I rejoined NASA Ames as a contractor with Sterling Software. I have worked on several projects, including particle spallation from the Galileo Space Probe and the development of Aero-assisted Space Transfer Vehicles (AST V), for which I obtained a patent and received a Space Act Award.

In 1992 I was a winner of the first Ames Technical Paper Contest for Women, presenting a paper on the SAGE code. This is a program that improves computational fluid dynamics calculations, and I have subsequently won two more Space Act Awards for this work. The code was a finalist in the NASA Software of the Year Award.

The best part of my job is being able to work alone on solving problems, but having a vast number of highly qualified people to provide help whenever needed.

I was always good at math. I started work at NASA when computer programming was in its infancy, as a programmer for a NASA researcher.

I was very lucky: I went to school in England at a time when all-girls schools were usual. In this environment, there was no problem at all in doing science. However, we were only offered the pure sciences math, physics, chemistry; no engineering etc.

I think it would have made a difference for me to know what kind of jobs were available when I was making career descisions.

I worked in England for a year before coming to the United States. I quickly found out that I was earning less than my male counterparts. Fortunately, as soon as I complained to my management, this was rectified. The only other obstacle occurred when I was looking for my first job in the United States. At one interview I was told that there wasn't much demand for "girl" programmers!! On my first day at a new job, my manager told me that he had told his recruiting office that he didn't want any 'girl' programmers. He had none in his office at that time, (only eight 'boy' programmers). This all sounds so incredible now, but this all occurred in the late sixties.

My daughter and son are in college, so now I volunteer at the Stanford Health Library, helping patrons research the medical books, databases and the Internet, and I also tutor at a local middle school. I love track and field and officiate at track meets. I keep on going to Spanish classes in the hope that one day it will stick!

I'll share this story only because it shows "we've come a long way baby." In 1968 I was getting married and my office colleagues decided to take me to a nice restaurant for lunch to celebrate. They made a reservation and off we went. On arriving, there was a lot of confusion and a real surprise: we couldn't eat in the dining room because "women" weren't allowed in at lunch time (reserved for businessmen only). My colleagues, all male, had never noticed this!

A Day In the Life of Carol Davies

Archive of chats with Carol:

• 9-30-97 Web chat
• 3-11-97 Web chat
• 12-17-96 Web chat
• 10-22-96Web chat

My home page is at: http://pioneer.arc.nasa.gov/~tam/staff/davies/bio.html