WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:04.170
My name is Deborah Amato. I am the Deputy Chief

2
00:00:04.190 --> 00:00:08.340
Technologist, and my primary responsibility is managing are internal

3
00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:12.510
research and development program.

4
00:00:12.530 --> 00:00:16.600
(Music)

5
00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:20.750
I think I first wanted to work at NASA, when I was a child.

6
00:00:20.770 --> 00:00:24.870
I was interested in,

7
00:00:24.890 --> 00:00:28.980
the space program, the NASA program, and the Space Shuttle Program specifically.

8
00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:33.080
I thought that maybe I'd be an astronaut one day.

9
00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:37.140
I was also interested in astronomy and stargazing,

10
00:00:37.160 --> 00:00:41.210
and so, that interest

11
00:00:41.230 --> 00:00:45.270
just grew and I ultimately ended up at NASA,

12
00:00:45.290 --> 00:00:49.310
working on space projects. On my first day at NASA,

13
00:00:49.330 --> 00:00:53.480
I was a summer intern. I found out about an

14
00:00:53.500 --> 00:00:57.670
opportunity to be able to come and work as a summer intern here,

15
00:00:57.690 --> 00:01:01.850
and I was so excited, and thrilled to be here. And it was

16
00:01:01.870 --> 00:01:06.030
a lot of information to take in, and I met lots of new people, and

17
00:01:06.050 --> 00:01:10.190
it really was just a thrill to be here at NASA.

18
00:01:10.210 --> 00:01:14.340
And then after I was a summer intern, I was able to get into

19
00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:18.470
the co-op program. And when I entered the co-op program and

20
00:01:18.490 --> 00:01:22.600
was working here, it was sort of my first experience

21
00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:26.730
of feeling like I was an adult. Like okay, this is

22
00:01:26.750 --> 00:01:30.830
real, and this is what engineering is like.

23
00:01:30.850 --> 00:01:34.910
When I first came to NASA,

24
00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:38.980
I was working as an engineer with a scientist

25
00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.050
mentor, and he was able to show me

26
00:01:43.070 --> 00:01:47.080
the various projects that he was working on. And the first project that I worked on was

27
00:01:47.100 --> 00:01:51.100
called HESPM, High Energy Solar Physics Mission.

28
00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:55.280
And it eventually turned into an actual mission,

29
00:01:55.300 --> 00:01:59.460
that I was able to work on about 10 years later.

30
00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:03.630
So, it was really interesting to be able to see

31
00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:07.800
that, sort of at the beginning stages of the concept formation

32
00:02:07.820 --> 00:02:11.940
and then, work on it when we're actually building hardware

33
00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:16.090
and launching a satellite. One of the biggest influences on my

34
00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:20.220
life was my grandmother. And she was a

35
00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:24.330
teacher, for all of the years that I knew here she was a teacher. Because of that

36
00:02:24.350 --> 00:02:28.440
and because of her beliefs, she set for me the

37
00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:32.530
idea that education is very important, and my family too. Education was very

38
00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:36.600
important in my family. And I believe that education is important for

39
00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:40.660
building on your skills and preparing for whatever career that you

40
00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:44.700
might pursue in the future. She was a very special lady and very influential,

41
00:02:44.720 --> 00:02:48.740
and also my parents of course, my mother and father

42
00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:52.920
were influential and certainly on my choice of career. My father is an electrical

43
00:02:52.940 --> 00:02:57.100
engineer, and my mother is a chemist. And we always teased that I would grow up to be a

44
00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:01.270
chemical engineer. And it sort of worked out that way, in that I ended up pursuing aerospace

45
00:03:01.290 --> 00:03:05.440
space engineering. The happiest moment of my career being able to

46
00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:09.620
see a project that I've worked on being launched.

47
00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:13.750
And I think that, that is all of the work, all of the

48
00:03:13.770 --> 00:03:17.880
preparation and work goes into that one moment and everyone is so

49
00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:22.010
thrilled when things are successful. What I'm most proud of is

50
00:03:22.030 --> 00:03:26.110
for my career at NASA so far, having something that I touched and

51
00:03:26.130 --> 00:03:30.190
worked on orbit the Earth. One of my favorite projects that I worked on

52
00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:34.270
is named TRACE, The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer.

53
00:03:34.290 --> 00:03:38.330
It's a small spacecraft that's studied the sun, and

54
00:03:38.350 --> 00:03:42.370
I was able to hold the primary mirror of the telescope while

55
00:03:42.390 --> 00:03:46.410
the mirror mount was being installed. And I did a variety of other things for that

56
00:03:46.430 --> 00:03:50.580
instrument, but that was really an excellent team,

57
00:03:50.600 --> 00:03:54.760
wonderful project and very exciting when it launched,

58
00:03:54.780 --> 00:03:58.940
and when we go the first pictures back. One thing that I would say for

59
00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.090
young women who are preparing to enter the work force and,

60
00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:07.260
or preparing to pursue and educational path for their future, just

61
00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:11.420
go for it, and definitely work hard, and prepare yourself.

62
00:04:11.440 --> 00:04:15.550
Don't be afraid of the stereotypes or the

63
00:04:15.570 --> 00:04:19.660
things that you might hear, or cautions that you might have like

64
00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:23.750
"engineering is not for you," "there's only men pursuing engineering,"

65
00:04:23.770 --> 00:04:27.840
or other things that you might assume about particular,

66
00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:31.910
a particular, profession that you would choose. I have always in my

67
00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:35.970
experience; I have always had a very

68
00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:40.010
easy time in this profession,

69
00:04:40.030 --> 00:04:44.050
and working for NASA. So although there are more men

70
00:04:44.070 --> 00:04:48.230
in engineering, and more men that I work with then women, that hasn't been a problem,

71
00:04:48.250 --> 00:04:52.400
and it hasn't been a set back for me in my

72
00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:56.490
career.

73
00:04:56.510 --> 00:05:00.520
(music)

74
00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:04.351
(music)