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December 6, 2004 Vol. 75, no. 10F
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| CEE alumna Kate Maher
is a three-time national champion in women's collegiate cycling.
She wants to train for the Olympics after she finishes her Ph.D.
in earth |
Speeding
is a way of life for cycling national champion and CEE alumna
CEE alumna Kate Maher (M.S.
'01) races her bike at one speed: faster. In her favorite type
of cycling race, the criterium, she exceeds 30 mph, flashing by onlookers,
brushing handlebars with competitors, and leaning into the never-ending
corners that comprise the criterium's two-city-block loop. Usually,
there are crashes.
Her last crash was this summer when she broke two ribs. She recovered
and is cycling again; not even the possibility of more broken ribs prevents
her from taking it slow.
"I like the aggressiveness and risk-taking," says Maher, who
alpine ski raced when she was younger. "As soon as the gun goes
off, you go as fast as you can."
Maher's racing provides a healthy counterbalance to the slow, careful
rhythm of science, which has been her life for the last several years
at Cal, first working on environmental fluid mechanics for her environmental
engineering master's degree, and now working on reaction transport
modeling of uranium and strontium in groundwater for a Ph.D. in earth
and planetary science.
Maher began her cycling career at age 12 when her mom took her mountain
biking in the hills behind their Ashland, Oregon, home. By the time
Maher entered Dartmouth College as an undergraduate, she was competing
in 20-mile cross-country mountain bike races. Later in her junior year,
she turned professional, only to lose her sponsorship in 1998 due to
budget cuts. The experience was a reality check, she says, and put a
grad school future - specifically environmental science and engineering
- back into focus. In 1999, she came to Berkeley.
Maher chose Cal, she says, because the classes were more applied than
other schools, and the professors were outstanding teachers. During
her first year and a half of graduate school she concentrated on research,
she says, and didn't ride seriously. But by 2001, some friends
convinced her to join the Cal women's cycling team, and she made
the switch to road racing. In between classes and research, she became
a three-time collegiate national champion, twice in 2002 in two categories
and again in 2003.
"I like to win, but I'm not obsessive or malicious about it,"
says Maher. "It's for fun."
Maher isn't the only engineer to enjoy cycling; a lot of engineers
are in the sport, she observes, "either because they like to torture
themselves or because they're fascinated with the mechanics of
a bike."
Maher herself builds bikes, but "they usually fall apart in a week,"
she says, laughing.
These days, Maher has scaled back her cycling, but still manages the
occasional 7 a.m. ride with girlfriends. And she hasn't relaxed
the urge to win. After she completes her Ph.D., Maher says she may train
for the Olympics. "I'm getting stronger every year."
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