Websites for Words

Hello, my name is Carola F Berger. I hold a PhD in physics and am currently doing business as CFB Scientific Translations LLC, where I offer patent and other translation services between German and English. Now, how did I go from physicist translator to offering website design services for fellow language professionals and other wordsmiths? Read on.

Did you know that the World Wide Web was invented at a physics institution (CERN)? Therefore, it was only natural that my physics department offered webpage hosting for its students in the early 90s, at a time when the rest of the world still thought WWW meant World Wide Wrestling or Wonderful Wonder Woman. My own early webpage was simply a static HTML page with various links. Later, I added funky disco-inspired animated GIFs, as was fashionable at the time. You can find my current main business website of CFB Scientific Translations LLC here, complete with responsive WordPress design in two languages and a WooCommerce shop.

In 2017, I was unexpectedly promoted from Ethics Chair to Webmaster on the Board of Directors of the Northern California Translators Association. As such, I am not only responsible for maintaining NCTA’s main website as well as NCTA’s online journal, Translorial, but also for administering the entire membership database including profile search functionality as well as events and event RSVPs and tickets. I am responsible for the current redesign of the NCTA website as well, including a separate member area behind a paywall, although the primary color scheme was developed by an earlier Board of Directors. In the role of NCTA Webmaster, I have learned more about the intricacies of WordPress, its plugins, PHP, CSS, SQL etc. than any sane translator should know.

Since 2021, I am the webmaster of the Science and Technology Division of the American Translators Association. Further, from 2021 to 2022 I was a member of the Steering Committee of CoPTIC America and the coalition’s webmaster, before the advocacy organization found its successful conclusion.

As part of my translation services, I have localized websites and software interfaces, including mobile apps. My own business website is bilingual in English and German. I am therefore intimately familiar with WPML and Polylang, the two most popular multilingual plugins for WordPress. My experience in localization includes software and app GUIs for a variety of clients in the high-tech industry, from Silicon Valley start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations.

In short, your website is in good hands. Although a physicist by training and a translator by trade, I know my way around multilingual websites and WordPress.

But enough about me, I’m sure you are more interested in my handsome Border Collie/Cattle Dog assistant Winnie. When Winnie is not busy winning ribbons at AKC agility events, he ensures the safety and security of CFB Scientific Translations LLC’s headquarters. Furthermore, he is responsible for shredding sensitive documents into microscopic pieces in accordance with applicable privacy regulations. His full AKC name is Erwin Spock Berger: Erwin after the great Nobel-prize winning physicist from Austria who had a thing about cats, and Spock after the character with the poignant ears from Star Trek.