Dr. Angela Zapata

Dr. Angela Zapata was born in Colombia and lived there until the age of 13, when she came to the United States. When she was a little girl she felt like she could accomplish anything. Her dad was an electrical engineer and her mother worked in sales. Her parents now live in the United States.

When she got older she attended Worcester State College in Central Massachusetts, where she got her Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry. Later on, she got her Ph.D. at Tufts University. She spent 4 1/2 years on her Bachelor's and 7 years on her Ph.D. She worked at Draper Laboratory in Kendall Square for two years before taking a teaching position at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. While she was a teacher, she worked at Draper Labs part- time and will be going back to Draper this fall to work full-time. When she goes to work she gets there at seven a.m. and gets home at six p.m.

One of Dr. Angela Zapata's greatest achievements is being flexible with her life, switching careers, and trying different things. Her initial career choice when she was in college was to go into marketing. She liked science but it wasn't until later that she decided to major in chemistry. She was the only girl in her class of seven people. Dr. Angela Zapata didn't feel like she was treated different, but some students did make jokes about girls in science. She was at the top of her class so she didn't care about the jokes. In her class there was only one-woman professor.

In graduate school, her goal was to do environmental work. During her studies, she didn't give in to pressure to be cool in school. Dr. Angela Zapata didn't take drugs, and her friends understood she wanted to do her own thing. She has to do a lot of graphs and equations for her work. She feels tired sometimes but her job keeps her going.

Dr. Angela Zapata has hobbies other than her love of science. She trains all through the winter to be prepared for marathons and triathlons. She runs during the evenings and has run the Boston marathon. She has been courageous her whole life and we wish her the best with her life.