What is really important to her?

Felicia Ochoa's father once told her that knowledge is power. Felicia believes that she is constantly learning. Looking to more experienced people as reference books, she is constantly gathering information. The more ways she learns how to do things, the more valuable she becomes. She hopes to one day help other people by sharing with them what she has learned.

What does she do in her spare time?

Felicia loves to read. And her tastes are wide-ranging--everything from chemistry textbooks to short stories, biographies and, her lastest passion, astronomy. Lately, she has found tremendous enjoyment going out with friends and looking up at the night sky to discover constellations and galaxies she had never noticed before. Another new interest is movies--but not just any movies. Felicia is delighted at the large number of repertory movie houses in the East Bay playing everything from obscure Sci Fi thrillers, to the most recent foreign films.

What is something else cool that she has done?

Felicia feels that boredom is a state of mind and that everything can be made interesting. On a whim, she decided to take a road trip to LA. On the way south she spent the night at Hearst Castle and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In Hollywood she visited one of her younger brothers. And even though there was not much to see driving (except the thousands of others that appeared to be doing the same thing that week) she made it interesting by observing the changing landscape of California's Central Valley.

How did she get here?

Felicia grew up with two younger brothers in Livermore, California. As a kid, she loved to tinker with things to figure out how they worked. She recalls many times when this interest got her into trouble. Once at a friend's house, she discovered the hard way that the two pine cones on a cuckoo clock are counter weights that are necessary to balance and hold in the gears--and that if you remove one of them the clock no longer works.

Originally, Felicia Ochoa was interested in biology and hoped to become a veterinarian. Having good grades in high school and showing lots of enthusiasm for learning, her biology teacher recommended her for a a part-time job with a biophysicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Throughout her high school years, she worked on a project studying the development of abnormalities in mice. From there she went on to a position where she learned the technique of Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS)---a technique which allows researchers to analyze minute amounts of chemicals. She has since earned two two-year degrees in mechanical technology, and has worked in everything from explosives engineering to glass blowing. Since coming to the ALS at Berkeley Laboratory as a mechanical technologist, Felicia has found the job which allows her to use not only her past work and education experiences, but also encourages her to explore new ideas and technologies.