乌玛·乔杜里(Uma Chowdhry)在印度孟买(Mumbai)长大，家里有三个孩子。她上过英国的教会学校，用英语授课，高中时开始对科学感兴趣。在获得了孟买大学的物理和数学学士学位后，她想在美国继续她的学业，并被加州理工学院录取。她为了爱情而结婚，这违背了她父亲的意愿。在密歇根大学学习了两年之后，乌玛和她的丈夫分别进入麻省理工学院和哈佛大学攻读博士学位。在麻省理工学院，乌玛为材料科学系的陶瓷教授罗伯特·科布尔(Robert Coble)研究电池，因此对应用科学更感兴趣。乔杜里接受了杜邦公司(E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company)的一份研究科学家的工作，她说这家公司有很多资金和良好的设备，是一个研究的好地方。她很快转入催化领域，与其他学科建立了联系，并成为一个新陶瓷小组的组长和研究主管，从此她放弃了实验室工作。她成为美国陶瓷学会的会员。接下来，她被提升为杜邦超导体小组的负责人，该小组获得了20项专利，发表了20到30篇论文。 But business experience was deemed necessary, so Chowdhry was appointed Lab Director in the Electronics sector, where she had to learn several businesses. Her sector developed a thick film paste for integrated circuits packaging. As business director of microcircuit materials (MCM) Chowdhry had to learn the manufacturing process, deal with customers, even work on the production line. As business director for Terathane, an intermediate for Lycra, she saw new plants built in Spain and Texas. Next she was made manager of the military market for the Americas, and then she became global manager. From there she became the leader of DuPont Engineering Technologies (DuET). She promoted the DuET brand and engineers to the chairman of DuPont, executives, and department heads, improving morale and garnering much respect for the engineers. Realizing a dream, Chowdhry was selected vice president of Central Research and Development; then Chief Science and Technology Officer (CSTO). She points out that she has delivered a very large amount of revenue to DuPont and developed numerous products to improve and enrich lives. She retired after four years as vice president and four as CSTO. Chowdhry has learned much on every job; she loves to learn. She praises DuPont’s corporate ideology and purpose and its core values, especially safety. She explains that providing food and energy are DuPont’s current focuses. She talks about DuPont’s mandate to reduce environmental impact in all new products; and new labs in other countries. Though retired she serves on the advisory board of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the nominating committee of National Academy of Engineering (NAE). She believes that the United States is still best for innovation, entrepreneurism, research and development funding. Globalism results in more women involved, but America is still the most equitable. Chowdhry emphasizes the importance of communication skills, networking, and mentoring. She concludes with a discussion of her awards, hobbies, travel, and family in India.