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Ming-Pin Wang |
Scientist of All Trades
Ming-Pin Wang
November 2004
Education in Taiwan can be a stressful affair. Students are required
to take exhaustive exams at each stage of the school system. But
for Ming-Pin Wang, now a principal systems engineer for MITRE's
Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM), the stress lay not in
the tests, but in the options her results afforded her. Having consistently
scored in the top 1 percent nationally on the exams, she had to
decide: Which discipline do you pursue when you want to know everything?
Wang, who recently received the Career Achievement Award at the
2004 Women of Color Technology Awards, faces the same difficult
choice when tackling a MITRE project. Well versed in mathematics,
statistics, chemistry, biology, and other sciences, she does not
indulge in the expert's habit of viewing every project through the
lens of a single discipline. Wang is compelled to appraise her projects
from the perspective of multiple disciplines. "I might not always
necessarily have the right answer, but, by looking at every part
of the problem, I can ask the right questions to help the experts
find the solution."
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| Recognizing
Career Excellence
The Women of Color Technology Awards seek to
create a more open and inviting environment for
minority women in the technology industry by shining
a spotlight on the ones thriving in their fields.
Ming-Pin Wang's contributions and expertise in
the areas of environmental engineering, modeling
and simulation, information systems development,
economic and decision-support analysis, risk management,
and enterprise architecture put her at center
stage.
In endorsing Ming-Pin Wang for her 2004 Career
Achievement Award, Dr. William Raub, the Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency
Preparedness at the Department of Health and Human
Services, wrote "Rarely have I met an individual
as dedicated or as capable of summoning the technical
expertise, professionalism, and interpersonal
skill to succeed."
MITRE both encourages the nomination of its employees
for awards and celebrates the awards once they
are received. "These awards bring broad recognition
to the fact that MITRE is a national resource,"
says William Albright, MITRE's Quality of Work
Life Director. "The reason why we are a national
resource is because of our employees and their
expertise. So recognizing that expertise in the
form of individual awards is not only great for
our employees, it's great for MITRE." |
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It was in her graduate studies that Wang found the solution to
the dilemma of her polymath interests. "Because I didn't know which
subject I wanted to specialize in, I chose one that would give me
broad and continuous exposure to other subjects. Environmental modeling
requires quantitative analytical knowledge common to other engineering
disciplines, plus a strong grasp of the various sciences." But,
Wang added happily, "I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time in the
lab cleaning beakers."
Wang moved to the United States to receive her doctorate in Civil
and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Her thesis modeled the effect of physical, chemical,
and biological processes in an ecosystem. After graduating, she
joined an engineering consulting company that was one of the first
to develop a mathematical model of the dynamics of an aquatic ecological
system. Wang also participated in other projects, studying natural
and man-made changes to ecosystems for the National Science Foundation,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
MITRE sought to put that ecological modeling experience to work
when we hired Wang to join a team helping the EPA to prioritize
Superfund sites. At first she was nervous. "I was worried because
environmental modeling was not considered an expertise area at MITRE.
But I soon started to see the value in my broad interests."
That value, a knack for seeing solutions others might miss, soon
showed itself. Her team was attempting to categorize the persistence
of toxic chemicals in surface water. Studying their preliminary
results, Wang noticed that the team, which possessed a lot of experience
in chemistry but not in hydrology, had not taken into account how
quickly contaminants would wash downstream from the source. When
she brought this to the attention of the team, the team leader praised
her for bringing fresh insight to the problem.
"I tend to keep myself flexible so I will be able to complement
the project team. I try to take on the pieces of the project that
fall outside the other members' expertise." Wang is currently working
on a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) team to promote
awareness of and collaboration in the protection of the nation's
critical health infrastructure, a crucial goal of both the HHS and
the Department of Homeland Security.
No longer uneasy about her reluctance to specialize, Wang has found
a comfortable home for her wide-ranging curiosity at MITRE. "MITRE
is often involved with issues of new national importance, issues
that may require new approaches. So MITRE recognizes the importance
of skills like mine that may not be easily characterized by a discipline.
It is this common spirit of continuous learning, broad and balanced
perspective, and creativity that makes MITRE special."
Rest assured that Wang's curiosity does not get packed away when
the work whistle blows. With her son in college, Wang says she hopes
to have more time to catch up on her reading. When asked what her
reading tastes are, she replies, laughing, "Eclectic."
—by Christopher Lockheardt
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