Introducing Dr. Rodica A. Baranescu, SAE President for the year 2000

Had her father gotten his way, Rodica Baranescu would now have a successful physician's practice and enough spare time to entertain audiences with her musical talents. Imagine his reaction when a young Rodica declared that what she was more interested in doing when she grew up was ballooning over Africa.

To father Vasile Delcescu's good fortune, his oldest daughter wasn't a full-time resident of the dream world she created by reading Jules Verne fantasy travel books. In fact, Rodica in her youth exhibited a remarkable facility for learning and understanding more down-to-earth subjects such as math and physics. In the post-war-ravaged reality of Romania, she was infinitely more likely to study the physical properties of the balloon than to ever climb aboard one.

With all sorts of ups, downs, twists, and turns along the way, her rise from humble beginnings in Romania to the pinnacle of the automotive engineering world has been a balloon ride-albeit a metaphorical one. She talked about it during an interview in her suburban Chicago office, where she holds the position of Chief Engineer, Engine Engineering for International Truck & Engine Corp. (formerly Navistar). It all started, she says, in Bucharest, Romania, during World War II. There were better circumstances under which to be born, but Baranescu and her family managed. Food was scarce. Life was simple. One of her earliest memories is from elementary school, where she and classmates drank hot milk donated in powdered form by the United States and other countries. The taste made it a not-so-wonderful memory.