Melissa Lane admits that she was never a hard core goal setter when it came to what she wanted to do with her life. "I just always went day to day and my life has slowly unfolded. I've always been open to new directions."

This strategy has worked out well for Melissa Lane, PhD, mother to nine-year-old Jonathan, and a Senior Scientist for the Planetary Science Institute located in Tucson, Arizona.

Lane analyzes spacecraft data from Mars, and her work is funded by NASA research grants. Though she always had an interest in science growing up, she never had a clear cut focus on exactly what she wanted to do.

Lane grew up in Bowmansville, a town not far from Reading. She graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1987 with a degree in geology. Lane was originally pre-med, planning to become a doctor like her father. But a geology class, "just grabbed me." She changed her major, and a chance opportunity to attend a professional geology conference introduced her to planetary geology. She was hooked and enrolled in graduate school at Arizona State University to pursue it.

Lane gets excited when she talks about her field. "Planetary geology is the story of the world," she explained. "You can be anywhere and the earth is telling a story. Even from millions of years ago. It's fascinating. I just love it."

One of the highlights of her career is when she was selected to take part in a research expedition in 2010 to Antarctica to collect and study meteorites. It took her away from her son for two months over Christmas, but it was a once in a lifetime experience, and it did give Jonathan "bragging rights with his friends." Lane collected more than 1,200 meteorites that are "leftover rocks that never formed a planet. They will help us understand what makes up a planet and help us understand the solar system. "

But as excited as Lane is about her professional work, she is even more excited about motherhood. Lane met her husband, Ralph Bergh, at school in Arizona, and they married in 2000. Since she says she was "no spring chicken," they started a family right away. Jonathan was born in 2002. As Lane looks back she sees it was a good thing that she didn't have a child in her twenties. "I had my education, I had my career. I never felt ready in my twenties." The only downside, Lane admits, is that perhaps waiting to have children may have prevented her from having more.

When Lane first had Jonathan, she was able to work at home doing research. She had to cut back her hours, but it was important for her not to put him in daycare. Lane recalls it was a "fractured" work day with her working around Jonathan's nap times. "But it was great."

"Research is fascinating, but it doesn't compare to watching a little blob of a baby develop into a little boy. There is just nothing like seeing that little baby growing." A special memory for Lane during that time was when she first realized that Jonathon had a sense of humor. She remembers something funny happened, and she could see her baby boy thinking about it and smiling. "He got it," recalled Lane. "And it was so cool to see." Lane added, "I've done a lot of cool things, but having my son has changed my entire life."

Lane's husband is from Minnesota, from an area not different from where Lane grew up. They lived in a cosmopolitan area in Phoenix and knew they wanted something different for their son. "I wanted Jonathan to have a childhood like I had, said Lane. "We wanted him to have a rural experience." They also wanted him to know snow.

But there was more to it. Lane especially wanted to return to Pennsylvania because her family was here. Her two sisters have recently returned to Pennsylvania with their families to live near Lane's parents. 

Lane explains it was like "cosmic forces at work" bringing everyone back together. While in Phoenix she said she missed the "simple family visiting" that occurs when relatives live close together. "It's fun to just get together at random," she said, like at a Whoopie Pie Festival the family recently went to together at the spur of the moment. 

So Lane is happy that she has always been open to whatever life presented to her and in the time frame that it came: her education, her career, her marriage and her son. Because now what Lane says about her life is, "It's bliss. Perfect bliss."

"It was the right decision." 
 
Mom Details:
Lane enjoys collecting Steiff stuffed bears. In fact she appreciates anything antique or handcrafted.

She plays on a soccer team called The Blaze.

Lane used to be quite active in hang gliding. In fact that was how she met her husband. Bergh was president of her hang gliding association.

Lane describes herself and her husband as "nerdy science types."

Books she enjoys include the Harry Potter series and, yes, favorite movies do include Star Wars! 

Lane also likes "vegging out" to HGTV.

Her husband, Ralph Bergh, also a PhD, is a fiber optics scientist. But Lane says dinner table conversations revolve around many other things besides science. "We'll discuss a Harry Potter book before Maxwell's Equations."

Lane has a theory that son Jonathan will go into a field totally different from his scientific parents, like art or music. 

Lane would have loved to have had more children, but that didn't happen. "So we'll just have to be satisfied with our one perfect son!" 

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By Maureen Landis, Special Features Writer