Pushing Boundaries: My Personal and Scientific Journey

Abstract

This autobiographical narrative offers a brief account of my journey and adventures in condensed matter physics (a.k.a. solid state physics) and some of the personal events that shaped my life and my career: my early years in Europe, my family's escape from the Nazis, growing up in Cuba, the difficult road into a field that was essentially closed to women, a personal disaster that knocked the wind out of my sails for more than a decade, and my return to a successful career in physics. In closing, I argue that, although we have made remarkable progress, we know but a thimble-full in our inexhaustible search for an understanding of the laws of nature.