Gwen Raubal, pictured with her husband Martin, has become an apprentice information systems administrator under the tutelage of Mark Probert who is in charge of our department’s network equipment and computing facilities. In case you wondered about the word “croeso” (Welsh for “welcome”) in the title of this article, Gwen hails from Maine but has a Welsh heritage – her British grandmother met a dashing American soldier during WWII and followed him to America. Gwen met Martin when she was majoring in International Relations (“how fitting,” Gwen quips!) at the University of Maine where Martin was working on his MS in Spatial Information Science and Engineering. When he finished and went back to his native Vienna, Gwen copied her grandmother – she packed her things, quit her job, and followed Martin to Europe. They were married in 1998 in Austria where their first son (Ian) was born and where Martin completed his Dipl.-Ing. in Surveying Engineering and, in 2001, his PhD (Honors) at the Vienna University of Technology. They next moved to Germany where they lived for about 5 years and where their youngest son, Eric, was born. In 2006, Gwen crossed the pond again when Martin accepted a teaching position in the UCSB Department of Geography. Stop by and say “croeso” to Gwen—if you can catch up with her! And check out her son Ian’s take on all their travels at https://legacy.geog.ucsb.edu/events/department-news/359/
