 |
 After
obtaining her degree in Mechanical Engineering and Materials
Science from Duke University in 2001, Ingrid taught
high school mathematics at Rough Rock Community School
on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. This experience
was perhaps more challenging than any engineering problem
she has encountered thus far, but was simultaneously
incredibly rewarding. During this time she became a
Solar System Ambassador and made her focus the Navajo
community in which she lived, meanwhile adding a stray
herding dog to the family.
The following year, taking a sabbatical from the Ambassadorship
and leaving the dog and her green parrot behind with
her parents, she traveled to Bangladesh as a Fulbright
Scholar to pursue research in flood forecasting and
management in collaboration with the local engineering
university in Dhaka, capital city of more than 12 million,
along with Bangladesh government institutions, local
and international non-governmental organizations, and
other agencies.
She did not want to enter a full-time engineering job
directly after obtaining her degree primarily because
she wanted to make an immediate impact and give something
back right away. However, it is engineering she has
chosen to pursue as a career because it is with this
discipline that she feels she can make the greatest
long-term impact on the advancement of science, the
exploration of outer space, and the improvement of the
lives and the environment here on Earth. Currently,
having recently returned from Bangladesh, she is residing
with her parents and pets in Seattle, WA.
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