Cherry Murray remembers the moment she decided to become a physicist. She was a teenager and her older brother was a physics student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “He said there was no way I’d survive doing physics there,” she recalls. “So I did. I’ve always liked to accept a challenge.”

The same determination has propelled Murray to one of the top jobs at Bell Labs, the research arm of Lucent Technologies. As vice president for physical-sciences research, she oversees some of the world’s most creative scientific minds in a laboratory with a pedigree that includes six Nobel Prizes for Physics, over 30 000 patents and life-changing inventions such as the laser and transistor.

Murray joined AT&T Bell Labs, as it was known in 1978, after completing her PhD on Raman scattering. Her supervisor Thomas Greytak expected her to pursue an academic career. “He fell off his chair when I told him I wanted to work in industry,” she remembers. “But he suggested I try a summer placement at Bell Labs.” Murray made a big impression with the company, and was hired as a staff member in the physical research laboratory as soon as she finished her thesis.

She began her working career by conducting light-scattering experiments on complex fluids, surfaces and other condensed matter. But she did not expect to stay. “I wanted to become a professor in a university,” she says. “I was offered a number of assistant professorships after I had been with the company for two years. But when I looked at what I could accomplish in my career at Bell Labs and in academia, I chose to stay at Bell Labs. It has such a great research atmosphere.”

Creative atmosphere

Diversity is the name of the game at Bell Labs – research in the physical-sciences division covers everything from plastic superconductors and novel transistors to DNA and dark matter. Murray keeps abreast of developments through endless meetings, the 400 or so e-mails she receives every day, and by spending time talking to researchers as well as managers. She tries to keep about 10% of her time free for her own research on colloidal systems and the self-assembly of optical materials, but confesses to having a stack of papers on her desk that are waiting to be finished.

Murray believes it is important to foster a research environment where there is an expert in every field working down the corridor. “It means that people are more likely to talk to experts in other fields about problems in their own research,” she explains. Indeed, researchers who work on gravitational lensing, for example, spend over half of their time acting as consultants for one of Lucent’s business units. Their expertise in charge-coupled devices and telescopes is called upon to solve problems with optical-communications systems. “People who are totally focused on product development tell me that their work benefits dramatically from being cultivated in a creative atmosphere,” she explains.

Bell Labs means different things to different people. “Anyone in industry would look at our work on quantum cascade lasers, for example, and call it basic research,” says Murray, “whereas people in universities would say it is applied research.”

But as the US economy shows signs of slowing down and shares in Lucent Technologies plummet, is there pressure to scrap basic research? Definitely not, replies Murray. “Many people don’t realize that long-term research is inexpensive compared with product development,” she points out. “Sure, there is pressure to save money – as there is throughout the communications industry. However, we have incredible support right from the top for the mix of research that we do.” While 1% of revenue is ploughed back into research, Murray admits that there is enormous pressure on her division to produce world-class research – in both the short and long term.

Murray says her greatest challenge is moving the organization through a period when the telecommunications industry and the technology are changing so rapidly. But she is no stranger to change. Her father was a diplomat, which meant that the family moved to a new country every year until she was 18. Like her father, Murray loves to do new things and has a naturally calm personality, which helps her to cope with the demands of her job. And when she’s not travelling on business, she does Tae Bo aerobic kick boxing. “It is so intense, it helps me to switch off,” she enthuses.

Management and motherhood

At 49, Murray seems to have it all, successfully combining a glittering career with motherhood. She had her first child when she was 34 and recalls that some of her colleagues at the time remarked that they thought she was committed to her career. She was. Just 12 weeks after the birth of her son, Murray was back at the lab and was promoted to head of the solid-state and low-temperature physics department a year later. Three years after that, she was promoted again. This time she was nine months pregnant with her daughter and took just 10 weeks maternity leave.

Murray admits that the first three years were the hardest and that she relied on an excellent day-care centre that was open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. School visits, plays and “girls’ nights out” with her daughter are added to her schedule just like any other appointment, and usually take precedence over work. Murray says she would definitely encourage her children to follow in their mother and father’s footsteps and study physics. Whether they will is not clear. “They have their own minds about these things,” she insists.

Being a woman clearly hasn’t stopped Murray from making it to the top. Does that mean there is no such thing as a glass ceiling? “There is a glass ceiling, particularly in academia,” she says. “If you look at the intelligence and creative ability of women in physics compared with the ranks that they have obtained, then there is a mismatch.” The reasons she cites are part historical, part attitude and partly because the proportion of women becomes smaller on the higher rungs of the career ladder.

That said, Murray insists that it is far easier for women and minorities to make a name for themselves in industry than in a university. “Industry cares about results, not about your background.”