Yoky Matsuoka
What does a genius look like?
Meet Dr. Yoky Matsuoka, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow & Associate Professor of the University of Washington. She has a doctoral degree from M.I.T. and designs robots.
So I went to the CityClub luncheon at the Seattle Westin Hotel on June 14 to catch a glimpse of this genius.
A mom with three kids under the age of seven, Matsuoka works as many as 80 hours a week. “I try to balance [career and family] all the time and am never very good at it,” she said. She said she has help from a nanny.
How can you raise your kids to be scientists?
Observation is the best method to train your kids to be scientists, Matsuoka said. She said one of her kids might be a scientist and another an engineer.
“Oh, Seattle is a great place to raise kids,” she said. “It has both nature and space.”
Matsuoka does not look and act nerdy. Nor does she look like a professor. She looks like a confident college student, down-to-earth and at ease.
When we talked, I forgot that I was talking to a genius. I just remember talking to an incredible mom! ♦