A-Z Index | Directory | Careers

Women's History Month, 2017: Tina Declerck

March 24, 2017

TinaD

Tina Declerck

« Back to Overview
Leen Alawieh »
Sowmya Balasubramanian »
Deborah Bard »
Tina Declerck »
Mariam Kiran »
Lavanya Ramakrishnan »
Jackie Scoggins »
Francesca Verdier »

Tina Declerck is the system lead for NERSC’s newest supercomputer, Cori, and deputy group lead for the Computational Systems Group. She originally joined NERSC in 1997, managing the PDSF and Cray J90 SV1 clusters. From 2001 to 2007 she worked for two technology startups: Sistina Software, the company that developed the Global File System (GFS) and 3Ware, which manufactures SATA RAID controllers.

What are some of the challenges you have faced being a woman in what has traditionally been a male-dominated field?
Being heard. I would sometimes make comments or suggestions in meetings and no one showed any interest. Then a man (sometimes in the same meeting) would make the same suggestion and be told it was a great idea.

What lessons have you learned along the way that you would share with other women thinking about working in this field, or in a science/technology/engineering position in general?
For me, I have found that focusing too much on where there was disparity caused me to lose focus on my job and instead spend time thinking about how I was overlooked or ignored and that I wasn’t doing a good job. It is good to look for openings to make improvements, but I had to get back to doing a good job and not worry too much what other people did or didn’t do.

What are some of your proudest achievements?
Collaborating with nearly every group in NERSC to get Cori successfully installed and working. It was really great to get to work with so many talented people.

What is your favorite thing about working at NERSC?
Working with really talented people and learning about the science that is getting done. It’s a very interesting place to work.


About Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab

High performance computing plays a critical role in scientific discovery. Researchers increasingly rely on advances in computer science, mathematics, computational science, data science, and large-scale computing and networking to increase our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and our universe. Berkeley Lab’s Computing Sciences Area researches, develops, and deploys new foundations, tools, and technologies to meet these needs and to advance research across a broad range of scientific disciplines.