[2] As an MIT student, she began her studies in biophysics, working with Patrick David Wall and Jerome Lettvin on research leading to the invention of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, but switched to solid-state physics after being inspired by a course on the subject given by Mildred Dresselhaus, and did summer research with Benjamin Lax at the MIT Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory.
Instead, she became a doctoral student in applied physics at the University of California, San Diego, supported by an Amelia Earhart Fellowship, while her husband worked at UCSD as a postdoctoral researcher.
She became an assistant professor at Wellesley College from 1977 to 1980, while continuing to run her research program and occasionally lecture at MIT.
[2] Unable to be considered for tenure at Wellesley, Brecher dropped out of academia in 1980 to become a risk assessment expert for the Arthur D. Little company, on projects including nuclear waste management, mining, and space exploration.
[2] In 1986, Brecher became a researcher at the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, where her work included studies of magnetic levitation, unmanned aerial vehicles, and planning for potential transportation-related bioterrorism attacks,[1] remote sensing, radiation exposure, prevention of drug trafficking, and air traffic control.