Kathryn E. Brenan
Engineering Specialist
The Aerospace Corporation
Kathryn Brenan is an Engineering Specialist with the Engineering & Technology Group (ETG) of the Aerospace Corporation in Herndon, Virginia, where she provides applied mathematical analysis and software development for Air Force and Department of Defense space systems. The Aerospace Corporation is a private, nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center. For seventeen years Kathy worked in ETG located in El Segundo, California, before transferring in November 1995 to the Washington Regional Office. Since joining Aerospace, she has worked with engineers on a variety of projects, supporting Air Force programs such as TITAN, Shuttle, and IUS.
"Most of my work has focused on the design and development of trajectory simulation tools for support of launch vehicle, orbit transfer, and reentry vehicle analysis," Kathy says. "Trained as an applied mathematician with a specialty in numerical analysis, I have been fortunate to be able to work on projects which have required me to develop, implement, and test numerical methods for these trajectory simulation tools."
"In my new position here in Herndon," she continues, "my work will change significantly. In particular, the mathematics required will be different, involving a more statistical or stochastic approach. One project involves determining launch schedules to establish and maintain prescribed satellite constellations, taking into account the reliability and wear-out functions for the satellites."
Kathy has a B.S. in mathematics from Bucknell University, a M.S. in applied mathematics from Purdue University (1978), and Ph.D. in applied mathematics from UCLA. Upon completing her master's, she was hired at Aerospace as a "Member of the Technical Staff." In 1991 she was promoted to "Engineering Specialist," a position she believes was given in recognition of her expertise in numerical analysis.
Her original motivation for joining Aerospace was her interest in working on real-world problems. "Throughout my studies," she recalls, "I have been interested in the real-world applications that generated the mathematics. In all honesty, I probably ended up at Aerospace because I was having difficulty finding the connections between my applied mathematics classes and the real world! However, after working at Aerospace for a while, I decided to return to graduate school to obtain a Ph.D., specializing in numerical analysis. My work experience definitely helped focus my studies more clearly on applied mathematics/real world aerospace problems. I have found that I enjoy the analysis of a technical problem, the development of software, the testing of algorithms, and the interpretation of the results. I believe industrial problems have led me naturally to good research problems. For example, my doctoral dissertation was motivated by a problem at Aerospace."
"The main difficulty with being in industry is the reality that one may not be able to pursue these research questions as fully as one might want. It is important to keep in mind the needs of your corporation. While one is not always performing 'research' in its purest sense, it is very satisfying to apply mathematics, and often one finds that a difficult problem has pushed you to the limit of the known solution methods."
While working at Aerospace she has found her courses in numerical analysis, differential equations, linear algebra, and optimization to be most helpful. "In my future," she notes, "I am anticipating the statistics classes I took (I am now dusting off my old texts!) will be very useful. I am currently reviewing the probability density functions and the meaning of 'confidence intervals.' I am looking forward to working on new application problems, as it will enable me to refresh myself in a different area of mathematics."
Her advice to students interested in pursuing a career outside academia is to be flexible enough to work in fields not directly related to their research specialty. "This means jumping in and studying a new area to become the local expert on whatever skill is desired," she adds. Oral and written communication skills are also valuable. Work done in industry needs to be technically clear and understandable to non-experts in the field such as management.
"Give talks on your work at seminars and conferences," she recommends. "Not only will this be good speaking practice, it will help you increase your network of contacts. These contacts will be important when you are expanding your research interests, applying for grant money, and looking for job opportunities. Also, where possible, work on group projects to gain experience in the team approach to solving problems. Interdisciplinary teams are the norm in industry."
This article is reprinted from the AMS-SIAM Career Information web site (URL http://www.ams.org/careers/).