Karina Wagner
Interview Posted By: Ashley Smith
1. Can you tell us a little about your background? i.e. Where you grew up, what education do you have, a summary of your resume, did you always want to do what you are doing now, when did you start to become interested in STEM, what internships/ volunteering
I grew up in small town Kansas until 5th grade, then moved to Bakersfield, CA. We were pretty poor. In high school, I didn’t have many friends, so I would go to teachers classes during lunch, either computer science teacher or my chemistry teachers class. I had a natural ability for chemistry, so I spoke to my teacher about careers in chemistry, he told me about what chemists do vs. chemical engineers. Based on my love of math, I chose engineering as I thought it combined my two passions of calculus and chemistry. I went to community college in Bakersfield for general engineering classes through grants, then transferred to UC Davis with a combination of grants and student loans, majoring in chemical engineering. After graduating, I found a job with Underwriters Laboratories, they recruited from UC Davis. I’ve worked here at UL for almost 15 years, since graduating, currently working in product safety for plastic materials used in electronic devices. In high school, I was involved in Spanish Club, Interact Club, and MESA. I volunteered with Interact club at various events. In college I mostly was involved in AIChE (the chemical engineering society) and SWE (society of women engineers). Through SWE we did several outreach programs for younger students to introduce them to engineering, such as having them “take classes” at UC Davis for a day or organizing Egg Drop design contest. In college, I also was on a team that produced plastic from bacteria in a lab and proposed a scaled up processing plant that could handle the process. Throughout going to school at UC Davis I had a lab position at a human physiology lab, making chemical solutions, cleaning, performing experiments, etc… Between Junior and Senior years, I got an internship at Elk Corp, a company that makes asphalt roofing shingles. I am involved in SWE still and do outreach, and I also am involved in mentoring an AP high school chemistry class.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
I evaluate plastics for safety in electronics applications. Such as determine it’s flammability characteristics, insulating properties, strength, electrical resistance, deformation, etc… When a client submits a plastic to be evaluated, I work with them to see what their application will be in a product and help determine what tests we should run to get the ratings they’ll need for that product. I set up the testing, send the testing to the lab (I don’t run the tests myself), analyze the results, write a report of the results. We compare the test results with a test standard, to determine compliance.
3. How does STEM relate to your job? How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
So I use mostly the S, E, and a bit of M. Sometimes some T. So for the science, we do lots of that with the testing and which tests to pick. Also for every plastic we evaluate we characterize it using ID testing on analytical equipment, such as Infrared Spectroscopy to determine the chemical structure. That is one example of many ways we use science. For math, lots of tests require calculations. For an example of both math and engineering, we age plastic in ovens for long periods and based on how the mechanical properties degrade over time, we can predict, using mathematical equations and chemical kinetic theory, the service use temperature for a plastic. Specifically how engineering comes into play, is that engineering is a lot about safety factors, and predictions. Science is about more specific answers. So for predicting a service use temperature, we have made a prediction using a safety factor of 2 and mathematical models.
From chemical engineering, I use the analytical chemistry side, the safety factor and similar engineering principles, as well as the chemical kinetic theory, and mechanical mechanics of materials concepts, as well as electrical concepts from physics, also heat transfer concepts from engineering and physics courses.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
Yes, at my internship, I just didn’t connect with anyone. The other engineers were married men, who didn’t give me the time of day to socialize, the operators didn’t socialize with engineers in general, so I talked to the mechanics. I also felt I didn’t get the opportunity to do the more interesting projects, they gave those to the male mechanical engineering intern. From being an intern, I didn’t know how to handle it, I just kept quiet and learned from the mechanics. Looking back on it, I would have asked for more challenges, and been more vocal in meetings to get more recognition.
At UL, I’ve had some times when older senior mentors would shush me when we were speaking to a male and he’d take over the conversation, even though I was the one handling the project directly. For that scenario, I just learned to be more assertive and vocal to make my presence known to gain respect.
At UL, I found the department that I enjoy doing work in (plastics) and people I respect and that are good mentors. I feel I have a promising career path here.
My general advice is find some department / job / company that you feel supports you, or that you have good role models. Also, know that if something like the above happens, you can try to make it better with some assertiveness, and research on a topic to gain confidence to speak up about it. If that still doesn’t work to improve the situation, do your best and know that nothing is constant in the work place, you might be assigned to a different role, new boss, restructuring, etc… If still not happy after giving it a shot, there’s always the option of finding a new position within your company or with a new company.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
I really love getting into the details of some of the predictive models I was speaking about before. Also any new challenge to solve is fun, at first it’s a bit uncomfortable, since it’s never been done before, but there are so many ways to be creative and innovative.
I get bored with the same stuff a lot, so that’s what I don’t like too much. There are a lot of projects I handle that are really repetitive. Also there is a lot of administrative tasks I need to carry out for my job, that’s not so interesting either. If I could change something, I’d hire more administrative people to partner with the engineers to help take some of the tasks off their hands so they can focus on technical projects.
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
I take work home sometimes, and have my work email on my phone, but in general I work about 40-45 hours a week, exercise, go to grad school, take a fun jewelry class, and spend time with my friends mostly on the weekends.
I guess my advice is look at what’s needed to finish the job. Try to be efficient, so you’ll have free time later. Don’t try to beat the best person at the office, they may be overcompensating for lacking in other areas. I just try to be really intelligent, speak up with ideas, support my teammates and help them out, and be really creative, so that facet of my personality outshines the fact that I don’t work 60 hours a week. The companies will always push you more, but test out when is enough and observe the majority of your coworkers. If you stay ahead of the average person, you’ll be ok. So that frees up a lot of time to do what you want to in your personal life.
7. What do you define success as?
Success for me is helping your team be their best, help your clients, give intelligent and creative solutions, be a good mentor, be someone people respect and go to for answers. Ultimate success for me would be to become a respected expert in a field.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
Working well with coworkers as a team. If you help your coworkers to succeed, they will help you in return, and they will talk about you positively, the good vibes spread and you get noticed.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
Experts in the plastics group really taught me a lot about the testing and showed me what I want to do as my career advances. I want to be a good mentor. I find them all to have a characteristic of being about to get really into detail on our testing or polymer science, but also to have fun and not to get too serious about life. It shows me I can fit in among experts.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received ? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
Looking back on my internship, in the exit interview my manager said “speak up more in meetings”. To feel confident enough to do that though, you need to know your subject matter. I always gained confidence when I knew a lot about what I wanted to talk about. I’d want to tell you or my younger self that public speaking can be a skill you develop, if you learn your material very well, it’s valuable information for people in the room and can just flow out of you. Get that down first, then use that to have the confidence to speak up in meetings, and say things that provide insight or are creative solutions. Those things get you noticed, getting noticed leads to neat opportunities, which leads to getting noticed more, which leads to promotions, etc… All good things!
I grew up in small town Kansas until 5th grade, then moved to Bakersfield, CA. We were pretty poor. In high school, I didn’t have many friends, so I would go to teachers classes during lunch, either computer science teacher or my chemistry teachers class. I had a natural ability for chemistry, so I spoke to my teacher about careers in chemistry, he told me about what chemists do vs. chemical engineers. Based on my love of math, I chose engineering as I thought it combined my two passions of calculus and chemistry. I went to community college in Bakersfield for general engineering classes through grants, then transferred to UC Davis with a combination of grants and student loans, majoring in chemical engineering. After graduating, I found a job with Underwriters Laboratories, they recruited from UC Davis. I’ve worked here at UL for almost 15 years, since graduating, currently working in product safety for plastic materials used in electronic devices. In high school, I was involved in Spanish Club, Interact Club, and MESA. I volunteered with Interact club at various events. In college I mostly was involved in AIChE (the chemical engineering society) and SWE (society of women engineers). Through SWE we did several outreach programs for younger students to introduce them to engineering, such as having them “take classes” at UC Davis for a day or organizing Egg Drop design contest. In college, I also was on a team that produced plastic from bacteria in a lab and proposed a scaled up processing plant that could handle the process. Throughout going to school at UC Davis I had a lab position at a human physiology lab, making chemical solutions, cleaning, performing experiments, etc… Between Junior and Senior years, I got an internship at Elk Corp, a company that makes asphalt roofing shingles. I am involved in SWE still and do outreach, and I also am involved in mentoring an AP high school chemistry class.
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
I evaluate plastics for safety in electronics applications. Such as determine it’s flammability characteristics, insulating properties, strength, electrical resistance, deformation, etc… When a client submits a plastic to be evaluated, I work with them to see what their application will be in a product and help determine what tests we should run to get the ratings they’ll need for that product. I set up the testing, send the testing to the lab (I don’t run the tests myself), analyze the results, write a report of the results. We compare the test results with a test standard, to determine compliance.
3. How does STEM relate to your job? How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
So I use mostly the S, E, and a bit of M. Sometimes some T. So for the science, we do lots of that with the testing and which tests to pick. Also for every plastic we evaluate we characterize it using ID testing on analytical equipment, such as Infrared Spectroscopy to determine the chemical structure. That is one example of many ways we use science. For math, lots of tests require calculations. For an example of both math and engineering, we age plastic in ovens for long periods and based on how the mechanical properties degrade over time, we can predict, using mathematical equations and chemical kinetic theory, the service use temperature for a plastic. Specifically how engineering comes into play, is that engineering is a lot about safety factors, and predictions. Science is about more specific answers. So for predicting a service use temperature, we have made a prediction using a safety factor of 2 and mathematical models.
From chemical engineering, I use the analytical chemistry side, the safety factor and similar engineering principles, as well as the chemical kinetic theory, and mechanical mechanics of materials concepts, as well as electrical concepts from physics, also heat transfer concepts from engineering and physics courses.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
Yes, at my internship, I just didn’t connect with anyone. The other engineers were married men, who didn’t give me the time of day to socialize, the operators didn’t socialize with engineers in general, so I talked to the mechanics. I also felt I didn’t get the opportunity to do the more interesting projects, they gave those to the male mechanical engineering intern. From being an intern, I didn’t know how to handle it, I just kept quiet and learned from the mechanics. Looking back on it, I would have asked for more challenges, and been more vocal in meetings to get more recognition.
At UL, I’ve had some times when older senior mentors would shush me when we were speaking to a male and he’d take over the conversation, even though I was the one handling the project directly. For that scenario, I just learned to be more assertive and vocal to make my presence known to gain respect.
At UL, I found the department that I enjoy doing work in (plastics) and people I respect and that are good mentors. I feel I have a promising career path here.
My general advice is find some department / job / company that you feel supports you, or that you have good role models. Also, know that if something like the above happens, you can try to make it better with some assertiveness, and research on a topic to gain confidence to speak up about it. If that still doesn’t work to improve the situation, do your best and know that nothing is constant in the work place, you might be assigned to a different role, new boss, restructuring, etc… If still not happy after giving it a shot, there’s always the option of finding a new position within your company or with a new company.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
I really love getting into the details of some of the predictive models I was speaking about before. Also any new challenge to solve is fun, at first it’s a bit uncomfortable, since it’s never been done before, but there are so many ways to be creative and innovative.
I get bored with the same stuff a lot, so that’s what I don’t like too much. There are a lot of projects I handle that are really repetitive. Also there is a lot of administrative tasks I need to carry out for my job, that’s not so interesting either. If I could change something, I’d hire more administrative people to partner with the engineers to help take some of the tasks off their hands so they can focus on technical projects.
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
I take work home sometimes, and have my work email on my phone, but in general I work about 40-45 hours a week, exercise, go to grad school, take a fun jewelry class, and spend time with my friends mostly on the weekends.
I guess my advice is look at what’s needed to finish the job. Try to be efficient, so you’ll have free time later. Don’t try to beat the best person at the office, they may be overcompensating for lacking in other areas. I just try to be really intelligent, speak up with ideas, support my teammates and help them out, and be really creative, so that facet of my personality outshines the fact that I don’t work 60 hours a week. The companies will always push you more, but test out when is enough and observe the majority of your coworkers. If you stay ahead of the average person, you’ll be ok. So that frees up a lot of time to do what you want to in your personal life.
7. What do you define success as?
Success for me is helping your team be their best, help your clients, give intelligent and creative solutions, be a good mentor, be someone people respect and go to for answers. Ultimate success for me would be to become a respected expert in a field.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
Working well with coworkers as a team. If you help your coworkers to succeed, they will help you in return, and they will talk about you positively, the good vibes spread and you get noticed.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
Experts in the plastics group really taught me a lot about the testing and showed me what I want to do as my career advances. I want to be a good mentor. I find them all to have a characteristic of being about to get really into detail on our testing or polymer science, but also to have fun and not to get too serious about life. It shows me I can fit in among experts.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received ? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
Looking back on my internship, in the exit interview my manager said “speak up more in meetings”. To feel confident enough to do that though, you need to know your subject matter. I always gained confidence when I knew a lot about what I wanted to talk about. I’d want to tell you or my younger self that public speaking can be a skill you develop, if you learn your material very well, it’s valuable information for people in the room and can just flow out of you. Get that down first, then use that to have the confidence to speak up in meetings, and say things that provide insight or are creative solutions. Those things get you noticed, getting noticed leads to neat opportunities, which leads to getting noticed more, which leads to promotions, etc… All good things!