The surprising request to contribute to an Internet site Woman
in Safeguards provides a welcome opportunity for me to reflect
on 22 years with the IAEA.
In May 1976, few months after receiving my university degree (Diplom-Ingenieur)
in Industrial Electronics at the Vienna Technical University,
I´ve entered with excitement the Agency premises, situated at
that time in the good old Grand Hotel on the Vienna Ringstrasse,
proud to be aboard this noble organization aiming at preventing
the misuse of nuclear energy and promoting its peaceful uses throughout
the world. In the first six month I worked as statistical clerk
in the Safeguards Information Treatment Unit. My pride grew successively
with increasing responsibilities and positions I have been entrusted
with - soon I was given the possibility to participate in the
development of the Safeguards data processing system. What a challenge
- testing procedures for data transmission from Member States,
testing input and loading of data, error analysis, development
and maintenance of software. And all this using a computer positioned
in a bathroom (a huge bathtub can be very helpful for spreading
out endless printouts) - after all it was the Grand Hotel! We
started with data transmission on punched cards (I still keep
a set of cards in my office as a souvenir from those days), moved
through magnetic tapes and all possible sizes of floppy disks
to advanced electronic media.
Just when Bill Gates gifted the world with Windows 98 the Agency
decided to promote me to the professional category. As one of
the database administrators in the System Infrastructure Support
Section I´m involved in support of databases used for the International
Safeguards Information System containing over 30 million records
with more than 2.5 million accesses per day.
The decentralization policy (client/server concept) and the introduction
of new applications increased the complexity of support needed
as well as dispersing the data over different hardware and software
platforms.
The multi-lingual and multicultural environment meets my lively
interest in other people and I enjoy working with colleagues from
so many different educational fields - most of my close friends
I have met through working with them.
Another great reminiscent is the years I spent with the VIC sports
clubs, i.e. VIC Runners and Cyclists. The WHO, FAO, UNESCO, etc.
mix during the yearly Inter-Agency-Games, where you will never
meet a formal VIC-colleague, but friendly, relaxed and smiling
people only carrying out the UN-Olympics in its finest form. The
most memorable event was that night at the rail station in Tarvisio,
when one of my cycling colleagues and I found ourselves without
passports, no Lira, 9 bikes of great value (sentimental or financial)
and no idea (at the beginning) how to get them to Milano Marittima...
But this is another long story.
And there are other things to make me feel good... I'm most fortunate
to have two wonderful children who do understand when their mother
comes home only late in the evening because of demands at her
work place... And living in a wonderful city... Vienna is different,
and in past 22 years it developed from the "sleeping beauty" to
a modern, lively town, full of artistic and cultural events.
All these happy memories make me look back with great satisfaction
and look forward for the years to come - hopefully with new challenges
and positive experiences...
