Women in Engineering Profile: Ida Berglund
This new profile series introduces leading materials scientists from around the world who happen to be females. Here we speak with Ida Berglund, materials design engineer for QuesTek Innovations LLC.
What does your typical workday look like?
It starts with a cup of coffee (or three) at my desk while going through emails and outlining my agenda for the day. There are often one or several internal project meetings during the day to discuss technical work and strategies, and the remaining time is spent by the computer on data analysis, reporting, communication, or doing basic research. There is also the daily lunch group effort on solving the Chicago Tribune crossword puzzle.
What’s been your biggest technical challenge?
Being able to easily convey scientific concepts, ideas, and methods to a new audience. Also, despite almost six years in the U.S. I cannot appreciate magnitudes of inches, ksi, miles, and such, and find myself having to convert to SI units during conversations and presentations.
What part of your job do you like most?
The variety. There is a balanced combination of technical work, meetings, reporting, client or collaborator interactions, and proposal writing, as well as travel to conferences or client meetings. Further, QuesTek works with a variety of alloys, products, customers, and partners, thus the technical work varies significantly, requiring me to constantly expand my knowledge in not only alloy design, but in multiple fields, which I greatly enjoy.
What is your engineering background?
I started my undergraduate studies in materials design and engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and continued through a master’s program specializing in biomedical engineering while also focusing on metallurgy. This rather unusual combination of design, biology, and metallurgy prepared me for an ideal Ph.D. project on biomedical alloy design at University of Florida.
What are you working on now?
I’m involved in about seven projects focusing on various classes of alloys or processes for different applications. While there is a large variety between the projects, the methodologies and tools I use are similar between them and utilize integrated computational materials engineering, with work spanning from alloy design concept generation to process assessment and property modeling. As an example, I’m looking at chemistry modifications of a commercial alloy and its effect on properties, by modeling the phase evolution with time using thermodynamic and kinetic models, and correlating the nano- and microstructure to macroscopic behaviors. The principles are the same whether you work with turbine blades or gum wrappers.
How many people do you work with?
QuesTek has 23 fulltime employees. The majority have Ph.D.s, in materials science, mechanical engineering, or physics, and while male dominated, there is a variety of cultural backgrounds, ages, and personalities among us. The small size of the company makes personal day-to-day interactions inevitable, and I’m happy to be around people who are not only intelligent, but also fun and kind.
If a young person approached you for career advice about pursuing engineering, what would you tell them?
Engineering is probably not what you think it is, or at least only part of it. Engineering skills can be applied to almost any field, regardless of discipline. As long as you enjoy what you do and are willing to learn new things, you can make a career out of it. Therefore I would encourage any engineering studies or training. I would further suggest getting involved in professional organizations within fields of interest by attending meetings and networking to get a better understanding of the society you’re considering going into. This could provide a deeper insight than, for example, textbook reading or listening to people’s opinions and experiences. It could also give you an idea of the structure of the community, which could identify paths needed to reach a certain position or environment you are interested in.
Hobbies?
Travelling, skiing, dining, baking, and hiking. Basically anything involving new experiences or food and drinks.
Last book read?
“Porten mot evigheten” by Ulf Westblom and John Ågren
For more information about ASM’s Women in Materials Engineering Committee, visit asminternational.org/wime.
