Dr. Diana Marinez: We have a lot of students that come to the university and want to be doctors, MDs, because that’s all they know, and they don’t know anything else about science and all the wonderful careers that they could choose from, yet they’ve already made up their minds. And in many cases, they make up their minds only because that’s what the parents want them to be or they met somebody and they don’t know a lot about it.

Erika Montero: You are listening to EarthSky’s podcast, La Clara Voz.

Since she was a child, Dr. Diana Marinez wanted to be a scientist. She had the good fortune to receive the support of her parents. Unlike many Latin women of her time, she excelled in science because she was determined to be independent. In this interview she tells us about her professional success and provides wise advise to young Hispanics.

Jorge Salazar: Dr. Marinez, there is such a buzz of excitement here among the students, the mentors, and the scientists here who are mentoring the students. I would like to ask you a really basic question. Why do you care about what you do? What has influenced you?

Dr. Diana Marinez: I always wanted to be a scientist since I was young, and it was encouraged by my parents. So then I just majored in chemistry and went on to graduate programs. But I think my passion has really been to ensure that Hispanics are adequately represented in the sciences, and that actually starts with the budding interest of children when they are very young. And the other thing is that most of our people don’t really understand what a PhD is; they know what a MD is. And so they do not have the role models of what a scientist is, because we don’t have them in our communities, especially in South Texas or along the border. Maybe in California with the UC system, but not in South Texas.

Jorge Salazar: I would like to maybe talk a little bit about, you know, as you were growing up and didn’t really know you were going to become a scientist. Was there a moment in your life that really made that difference to you, that really inspired you to become a scientist?

Dr. Diana Marinez: You know I was always good in school and always liked science, so I thought I was going to be a scientist, I just didn’t know what kind. When I got to high school I had a wonderful chemistry teacher who really inspired my interest and just said, “You know, why don’t you major in chemistry?” and I said, “Ok, why not?” and at that time- in fact, under my picture at graduation it says ‘future biochemist’. I just went along doing what you needed to do to do it, not exactly knowing how, but I had a lot of very good mentors and most of them were women, until I got to my graduate program, and then from then on it was all men. But they were all very supportive, and my parents never gave me that guilty feeling of “You are leaving Texas.” You know, I called it ‘la lágrima cuadrada- that frozen tear,” that sad look parents can give kids. I was fortunate I never had that.

I also decided very early on, that I wasn’t going to get married early because I learned, I guess living in South Texas in the 40s and the 50s, that marriage was a kind of power game and unless you had a job that brought in money you weren’t going to have an equal say. Therefore I didn’t get married until I was 29, after I had a PhD. So I wasn’t encumbered by things like that. You know, I am probably out of the ordinary. Most women of my generation got married, either right after high school or right after college and they worked, maybe as teachers… but I wanted to be a professional, so I felt that I needed to do it differently. But I never got the pressure from my friends or parents. Well, periodically I was asked, “When are you going to get married?”, and I would reply, “Not Yet!” And now I am married. I’ve been married for 37 years and I have two daughters, but we didn’t have role models in my generation who worked and had children, and who were at the university. So, you had to be a kind of trail blazer and try things out and so, I always felt that, you know, you have to be very careful about who you marry, and I think this is true for women and it is also true for men because if you want to do what turns you on, you both have to have that vision and you’ve got to do it together.

Jorge Salazar: I would like to ask about today, the complicated world of today, with so much information everywhere. How do you select information for your personal use? In other words, how do you determine what’s true in the world?

Dr. Diana Marinez: I guess as a scientist you look for evidence and it doesn’t make any difference what area and you try to collect as much information as you can, and then you just have to make decisions based on incomplete information, because there is just so much that you can’t possibly know it all. I mean, you also ask people who have expertise in those areas and whose judgment you trust. And then sometimes you just have to make decisions with incomplete information.

I think that it would be very difficult going to school today, what is expected, for let’s say a young professor now. It’s so much more than what was expected when I started at the university and I just said, “Well I would never get tenure under these circumstances. Thank God I already got tenure, and I am already this age.” I think it’s more difficult, but when you are doing it and you don’t know anything else you just think that’s how it is. It’s only when you get older and you look back and you say, “It was so much easier when we were coming through, than it is today.” But for youngsters, you know, this is just par for the course.

Jorge Salazar: What effect has your work had on the choices that you make to live a good life?

Dr. Diana Marinez: I think mostly, you know, basing what you do on evidence and making choices based on evidence. I mean, even buying a washer, you look at which washers are the best, or buying a car. But actually I spent more time as an administrator and so, I was more about building people, and most of the choices that both my husband and I made were based on making a difference. And my choice was make a difference in science and math education and to give back to our community in South Texas. So, for 13 years my husband and I have been living a commuter life, he lives in Michigan and live in Texas, and the only reason the marriage has worked is basically because we both felt that it was our responsibility to give back to our Hispanic community.

Jorge Salazar: Is there anything else that you would like to share today with the public or the listeners of Cielo y Tierra?

Dr. Diana Marinez: I think students and parents should consider science as a career. There are a lot of opportunities, and so you can gain experiences before you make a choice of specifically where you want to go. We have a lot of students that come to the university and want to be doctors, MDs, because that’s all they know, and they don’t know anything else about science and all the wonderful careers that they could choose from.

Jorge Salazar: What do you mean by the young people having experiences before they make these huge decisions in their lives? Could you talk a little bit more about that?

Dr. Diana Marinez: Well, I think when students go to college, they think that getting a college degree is just about taking academic courses and it’s much more than that. It is learning how to become a professional in your discipline, so you become a member of your disciplinary organization. You could also become a member of a sorority or fraternity, which is more social, but in order to go into a particular disciplinary field you need to kind of ‘live it’. For example, living doing undergraduate research at the university, going off in the summer and doing a 10 week, what they call ‘research experiences for undergraduates’. They actually pay you to do that, and that gives you the opportunity to look, say, at a big research intensive university, and say “Would I like to be there? Do I like what these people are doing?” And so, it’s those kinds of experiences… it’s not just taking courses and getting a 4 point-o. You can get a 4 point-o and you’ve not really done anything other than ‘book learning’, and that’s not what life is about. Life is about all those other experiences and applying your ‘book learning’ to them.

Erika Montero: Our thanks to Dr. Diana Marinez. I am Erika Montero and this was EarthSky’s podcast, La Clara Voz, produced by EarthSky Communications.