Of all the teenagers that were briefly obsessed with becoming an astronaut after watching Apollo 13, Barbara Brenda Botros probably defied more odds than most. She attended McGill University and interned at the Canadian Space Agency her junior year, but her path to infinity and beyond got sidetracked when she developed a passion for thermofluids.
She arrived at MIT still thinking about aerospace and conducted Air Force-funded research during her masters, but when she began her PhD, it was thermodynamics that held her interest. She joined the BP-MIT Energy Conversion Research Program, working on coal gasification with carbon capture. Through MITEI and the MIT Energy Club, she broadened her interests to a problem more dynamic and pressing than space travel- energy. Her work in fundamental sciences had untold applications in energy, and like space travel, there was much to be discovered in the energy field.
Botros now works at United Technologies Research Center, where she says researchers are encouraged to investigate areas outside of their home disciplines. While developing high-efficiency air conditioner compressors on the industrial scale for refrigerants with low global warming impact, Botros envisions looking for the next groundbreaking idea in the energy sector.