Please give us a personal quote or a quote of a famous person (e.g. of Albert Einstein) that describes you and your life/work.
“Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.”
Richard Feynman

Please describe your job in only one sentence and tell us what the most important goal of this work is.
Nature relies on resonance to move energy and angular momentum around, and dissipation to make temporarily stable structures, from molecules to planetary systems to galaxies. My goal is to understand the essence of this universal process.

How did you get into this research/work field?
As a little girl in the 1960s I stared for hours at an artist’s impression of the Solar System in my parents’ encyclopaedia. I adored any TV show which involved space and time travel. My parents chose the local girls-only high school over the Catholic college for me because it had proper science labs. I got really lucky and had excellent maths teachers in school. I discovered one could study astrophysics in the mathematics department at my university. My dream of being an astrophysicist came true. And so here I am.

What would be the greatest discovery you would like to see in your life time?
I would like to see life discovered on another planet or moon. This (I deeply hope) will revolutionize the way we Earthlings view ourselves.

You work for the NCCR PlanetS. What do you think will the NCCR enable you to do you couldn’t do without it?
The high level of collegiateness in the NCCR and its sense of excitement and fun is a totally new experience for me. Without these things my productivity would continue to be sub-optimal.