| Employee spotlight: Daphne Zaras | ||
Daphne knows that the Nabisco Oreo recipe is so secret that the cookies and cream filling are made at separate locations. The pieces are then sent to another factory to be assembled. She knows how to check the jelly in Fig Newtons, and that they weigh the Teddy Grahams before and after the sugar coating is applied. From a summer college job learning cookie secrets to NSSL Webmaster, Daphne's career path has evolved over time. In junior and senior high school in Ohio, she had planned to be a teacher. Her parents, both teachers, encouraged her to major in her area of interest and explore all the options of a science degree before deciding to teach. Daphne majored in physics at Anderson University in Indiana and was selected to spend 10 weeks working on a research project at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington, Indiana. Her experience left her thinking that she liked research, but she wasn't sure if nuclear physics was the answer. Daphne completed her B.A. in physics at Anderson and decided to go to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her M.S. in meteorology. She had several offers to continue her education towards a Ph.D. but decided to take time off from school. For a year and a half, Daphne studied ozone chemistry at NASA's Langley Research Center, then moved to Washington D.C. to work for NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) using satellite data to help predict heavy rainfall and flooding events. Daphne found her work interesting but was enticed by a job opening at NSSL that mentioned both satellite expertise and severe weather in the job description. She came to NSSL in 1995. Daphne considers her pursuit of NSSL's Webmaster job two years ago to be her biggest success; "It is the perfect job where I can work with computers (including programming, which I enjoy), be around science and scientists, and also use my natural teaching skills to communicate science and interact with people." In addition to her Web duties, she talks with visitors and answers questions about severe weather and tornadoes from anyone who calls or sends email to us. From bug-collecting camping trips with her mom to visiting the Great
Sand Dunes in Colorado, Daphne says most of her meaningful experiences
in life have to do with nature. And her favorite way to handle stress
is to go out late at night and watch the sky. From their house in the
country, she and her husband Jim LaDue can see the Milky Way, and she
says a nightly meteor is almost guaranteed.
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