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Michele Koppes and Heidi Roop met “on an incredible landscape on the edge of the Greenland ice sheet about two years ago.” The conversation that followed made both of them think more closely about the value of science communication and...

Shelby Hurst grew up in northern Michigan where she spent plenty of time poking at and asking questions about the rocks in her grandparents’ backyard, which eventually led her to a PhD in geochemistry. She discusses the importance of women...

Kiya Riverman ended up studying glaciers because, on a field work trip, she was one of the few who could fit the ice cave in the glacier. She recalls, “you're surrounded by glaciers and then sometimes you're underneath glaciers. And...

Sanjoy Som, Director of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, believes in the importance of space science as a common goal of humanity, regardless of country – the founding inspiration of his institute. He talks about his passion for...

Elizabeth Schaeffer hasn’t followed the most straight-forward route into the geosciences but that’s allowed her to discover the field she most wants to study. She’s a non-traditional undergraduate studying applied geology and talks about recent internships she’s done that have...

Susan Bates has always been interested by the physical world and especially the ocean. She remembers standing on the beach as a kid in North Carolina wondering where the waves came from. Now, she gets to predict what the ocean...

Rosaly Lopes is a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. She discovered seventy-one new volcanoes on IO, for which she was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records. She uses her research into the surface of other planets...

“What is the earth saying to us?” Jackie Caplan-Auerbach is a volcano seismologist with the Western Washington University geology department. Jackie studies ice avalanches, which can happen at any time. Most ice landslides do not give warnings, but some do....

Kim Cobb loves being out in the field. She talks about the euphoria and passion she has for it, saying “It's like nothing I've ever experienced literally, and I've given birth to four children.” In this interview, she talks about...

President-elect of AGU natural hazards focus group and Northwestern University seismologist delights in getting away from conventional wisdom and pointing out when there’s Much Ado about Nothing. He reflected on his career trajectory from research on space to the depths...

Michelle Newcomer is now a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab but her first degree was in French and Sociology. She talks here about the fear that comes with changing careers, taking risks, and pursuing the path that you...

The potential downside of a career in always seeking discoveries is that it may stunt the development of your confidence. Even as someone who walked into NASA, living the dream in his mind, Nathan Kurtz experiences that downside, politely calling...

Emily Wolin is almost singe-handedly trying to upgrade Myanmar’s national seismic network. As a student, Emily saw the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Today, she helps scientists in Myanmar prepare their country for the aftermath of the next hurricanes to come...

While many of the interviews at the conference were with experienced professionals with a career spanning several decades, this interview is with a young up-and-coming PhD student who traveled all the way from the Philippines to attend her first AGU...

Krystal Yhap’s interest in urban water resource management was sparked by the conversations around water safety in Flint, MI. She’s now a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland studying the water system in San Francisco. She talks about her...

Seismologist Lucy Jones gained recognition for doing a TV interview following the 1992 Joshua Tree earthquake while holding her sleeping infant son. Long before that, she became one of the first American scientists to enter China after it’s normalization in...

Tom Krimigis works at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and was previously the principal investigator for the Voyager I and Voyager II missions. A student of Van Allen, Tom built detectors to search for Van Allen belts on...

Rafael Loureiro may confess to being an introvert, but he has no fear of people. He started off talking about AGU’s Voices of Science bootcamp, which he is participating in this year to develop his spokesperson skills. That segued into...

Erica Bickford’s advice to early career scientists or students is to look outside academia and explore all the potential career options available to scientists. She is particularly aware of the importance of science in daily life and in the policy...