Teaching Science at Public High Schools
Helping Patients Cope with Complexities
Geological Approaches to Diverse Questions
Bryn Mawr to Co-Host Microsoft Robotics Institute
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Katharine G. Frase '79 |
As an IBM vice president, wife of an executive and mother of four boys, Katharine G. Frase '79 is often asked how she manages the work-life balance. She uses an analogy to the two-pan balance many people remember from their chemistry classes: one can balance the pans at many different angles, but if one overloads the pans, the spine of the balance will break. Frase could also use that analogy for her career itself, in which she often balances the technical and human sides of a business issue.
One of the most rewarding projects of Frase's 20-year IBM career is a case in point. In the late 1990s, when she managed microelectronics packaging development and manufacturing, she was asked to chair a study to determine how IBM should respond to a European Union directive restricting the use of lead solder in the manufacture of electronic equipment.
"The microelectronics industry had used lead solders for 50 years, and they worked well," explains Frase, who holds a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. "Finding another material that works reliably every day was a huge challenge."
The study expanded beyond IBM to the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI), an industry-led consortium with a mission to assure leadership of the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. "The industry realized that if we each tried to solve the challenge of eliminating the use of lead solder, we'd 'die' because none of us had enough money to pay for this work," Frase says. "So companies that competed with one another every day banded together to collect the data we needed.
"If anyone had predicted that this would happen, people in the industry would have laughed," Frase says. "We thought it couldn't be done."
The technical solution: replace lead-based solder with tin-based solder.
Frase says the project was rewarding for two reasons. "I liked the human dynamics piece — finding ways to get competitors to work cooperatively," she says. "Finding the technical solution was also very rewarding."
Today, Frase serves as chair of the National Materials Advisory Board, which is part of the National Research Council's Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.
In June, Frase was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for her professional contributions, including the use of lead-free materials, to the development of electronic packaging materials and processes. Academy membership is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.
Hardware and Software
Frase, who is based in Somers, N.Y., was recently appointed vice president of technical and business strategies for IBM's software group following a period as vice president of technology. "I spent 20 years in the hardware business, and they've now asked me to learn software," she says, clearly appreciating the irony.
Yet there is a method to the move. "The days when we could think about computer hardware and software as two separate entities are behind us," Frase explains. "We need to collaborate, and one way to do that is to transplant people from software to hardware and from hardware to software.
"The job combines technology and business strategy, including acquisitions and alliances," Frase continues. "This is perhaps my steepest learning curve."
A key challenge is to devise technical solutions that make it easier to manage complex information systems. "Businesses have old and new hardware and software components from a dozen different companies," Frase says. "One of our biggest challenges is to make those systems simpler to use: how do we let customers use everything they already have, and grow their businesses rather than their IT departments ?"
Research and Manufacturing
Frase joined IBM as a postdoctoral researcher; her interests included mechanical properties and structural interactions in composites, high-temperature superconductors and ceramic packaging. She intended to stay a few years, and then pursue an academic career. "But I was dating a young man who didn't want to leave IBM," she explains, laughing. "So I joined the microelectronics division. My friends in IBM research were aghast: 'You're going to do what?!'
"So I promised myself that for a while, every time they asked how I liked it in the microelectronics division, I was going to say that I loved it," Frase continues.
It turned out to be true. "For me, working on things that go out the door in a box was more exciting than working on papers and publications," she says. "Even now, the thing that excites me is not developing a product for the beauty of the product, but responding to a client who asks, 'What can you do with hardware or software to help me run my business better?' That's the fun stuff."
As a woman in a male-dominated industry, Frase also fields the predictable question: "What are the secrets of your success?"
First, Frase refuses to behave "like one of the guys." Second, she says, "There are many people on the planet who are smarter than I am, but not many who communicate more clearly — in large part, thanks to Bryn Mawr — and it has served me very well. The ability to present the facts using vocabulary that anybody can understand forces people to take you seriously."
Dorothy Wright contributes news and feature articles on science, technology, engineering and general-interest topics to a variety of publications, including Civil Engineering and Engineering News Record.