-UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #858
BRINKMAN, WALTRAUD

BRINKMANN, Waltraud (1937- )
Emeritus Professor, Geography Department; Senior Scientist, Nelson Institute for Climatic Research
At UW: 1974-2004

Interviewed: 2007	
Interviewer: Sandra Pfahler
Length: 2 hours

Childhood in wartime Berlin; Early education; Berlin Airlift; Work in Canada; Undergraduate education; PhD study at the University of Colorado; climate and weather research; hiring by UW; Reid Bryson; tenure procedure; grants and research funding; teaching and graduate students; women in the Department of Geography;  campus climate for women; committee service and organizations; awards and honors;  new research; retirement activities.

First Interview Session (March 23, 2007): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

0:00:57	Waltraud Brinkmann was born in 1937 in Berlin, Germany.  

0:01:29	Her father was her first mentor: he taught her to read and write.  Her father was killed in 1944.

0:03:04	She received little education in her early schooling; all they learned were Hitler songs.

0:03:15	WB describes growing up during the Second World War.

0:06:15	She resumed her education after conclusion of the war.

0:07:36	During the Berlin Airlift of 1948 she was one of 150 undernourished children flown to a camp on the Rhine.  At the conclusion of the airlift she was sent to Bavaria for more nourishment.

0:11:32	Eventually she returned to school.

0:15:06	WB chose to work as a secretary rather than go on to university.

0:17:57	She wanted to get away from home and also wanted to learn English.

0:20:20	Many of her relatives emigrated to Canada after the war.  WB describes her passage across the Atlantic to Ontario, where her aunt had arranged for her to work for a hunting camp as a waitress.  She relates some stories about her work at the camp.

0:27:56	WB went to live with another aunt in Saskatoon, where she worked as an accountant.  She left to take a similar job in Calgary before becoming the bilingual secretary for a German oil company.

0:30:40	In the mid-1960s she decided to go to college, but first she had to complete a high school diploma.  

0:34:34	She talks about her interest in geography as an undergraduate.  

0:40:38	The department chair would not allow her (as a woman) to participate in a field project in geomorphology.

0:41:50	She took a climatology course.  Her professor invited her to collaborate on a research project on the Chinook wind; her name was included on the publication.

0:44:47	This project led to her master’s thesis.

0:46:12	One of her professors encouraged her to pursue a PhD at Colorado.

0:46:51	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

0:47:09	Brinkmann talks about the National Center for Atmospheric Research at Colorado.  She explains why she broke her engagement to her Italian finance at this time.  She talks about the difficulty of having a family and husband at this stage in her career.

0:50:47	She talks about her PhD work in geography at the University of Colorado.  She talks about the strengths of the department.  She won a scholarship that covered three years of study.  She worked in the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research.  Other female students in the program.

0:54:58	She discusses her graduate school research on snowfall and the development of glaciers.  She talks about how her second important paper was published.

0:57:00	WB talks about the use of aircraft for her research.  Training to go on research flights.  

1:01:34	Brinkmann talks about how they conducted research on chinook winds using the aircraft.  She recounts and incident in which her airplane nearly crashed.

1:06:40	She discusses her dissertation research.  Writing and defending her dissertation.  She finished her degree in four years.  

1:07:49	She talks about joining a research project on natural hazards.  She became the climatologist on the project during her 4th year of graduate school.  She talks about Reid Bryson and the UW department of climatology.  Bryson recruited WB for a job at UW.

1:10:13	She talks about Bryson and the climate and geography programs at UW.  She came to UW in 1974.  The creation of the UW Meteorology department.  She talks about the status of her position.  

1:13:50	She talks about the problem of starting into a new research track at UW.  Pressure to publish.  The question of how long to pursue research that initially appears unpromising.  The problem of being appointed half time in two departments.  

1:17:19	Brinkmann discusses her tenure process.  Funding to launch her own research program.

1:20:29	She discusses her service as department chair.  She was the first woman to hold this position.  She talks about some of the reasons that she feels she was not a great chair.  She talks about her teaching and her concern that her language skills were a problem in the classroom.  Memorizing lectures.  

1:25:27	She talks about her student course evaluations.  Teaching about the 1900 Galveston hurricane and other weather disasters.

1:27:32	She talks about her work teaching and mentoring graduate students.  Funding.  The culture of the Department of Geography.  An increasing number of women joined the department over the years, but many did not get tenure and ended up leaving UW.

1:33:20	End of Side.  End of Tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

1:33:22	Waltraud Brinkmann discusses the climate for women on the UW campus.  She always felt that being a foreigner was a bigger problem for her than being a woman.  She also thinks that personality traits and even her age had a greater impact on her career.

1:40:32 	WB discusses her service on campus committees.

1:43:14	She talks about her service on the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee.

1:45:50	She was involved with the Association of American Geographers.

1:47:47	WB describes her research on the drought severity index.

1:51:48	She talks about her leisure activities since retirement.

2:07:44	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview.	

END