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Growing up in Chicago, Gary Jedlovec dreamed of running his own weather station and becoming the next great TV weather forecaster. However, that all changed when he discovered meteorological research. Now well into his career as the Chief of the...

Paul Stackhouse is a sun chaser, but in his case it means measuring the surface radiation budget. This means figuring out how much sunlight gets to the surface of the planet, and takes a deep understanding of factors like cloud...

Kathy Cashman, professor at the University of Bristol, worked on the 1980 eruption at Mount St. Helen’s in Washington, one of the first monitored volcanic eruptions in the world (“it was a ‘who’s who’ of volcanology and geology”). Thanks to...

Cloud scientist Steven Platnick is trying to learn how clouds may magnify—or minimize—the effects of climate change. He first got excited about clouds when his Ph.D. advisor, who "treated us like equals," started asking questions about clouds. "He asked questions...

Todd Hoeksema solar physicists and senior research scientist at Stanford University shares his stories about the power of the sun, technology advances and its effects on society and younger generations. (Recorded 7 September 2018)

As the Scientific Visualization lead for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Mark SubbaRao oversees the translation of NASA science into images and movies. For Mark, science visualization is a key communication tool that allows the public to interact and explore...

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...

What starts as a conversation about arctic change is actually an all-encompassing discussion about career growth, patience, and personal growth. Walt Meier, National Snow, and Ice Data center, introduces us to Jackie Richter-Menge, US Arctic Research Commission, who has spent...

Stephen Running, an Emeritus Regent's Professor at the University of Montana, shares about his work with NASA studying the global ecosystem from space. Trying out a microscope at a young age ironically led him into a lifetime of looking at...

Kelly Fast basically works in a sci-fi movie- she works in the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA, which means she finds asteroids before they hit Earth. And while she hasn’t had to deflect any asteroids yet, she’s been involved...

Judy Pu is currently a grad student at the University of California, Santa Barbara studying Earth Science. We talked to her about moving forward from failure and criticism, the importance of education, and dealing with the loss of a mentor.

Who says work ends when you retire? For Tom Dunne, University of California Santa Barbara, the work is still finding him. Instead of heading off to the Amazon to find discovery, these days he need only look out his window...

If Sharmila Bhattacharya wasn't Program Scientist for Space Biology at NASA Headquarters, perhaps she would've been a theater actress. And while her contributions on stage would likely be legendary, we're happy to have her at NASA learning about how space...

Let’s say you’ve been involved in a project that has produced over 70 publications. Let’s say that project has spanned half your life. Let’s say you had to cross nations, endure tough conditions and delays, and negotiate a sometimes very...

Justin Kasper is a Professor of Space Sciences at the University of Michigan, where he designs sensors for spacecraft that explore extreme environments in space. In this interview Dr. Kasper talks about what sparked his interest in space, the rewards...

Matt Mountain thought he wanted to work alone as a scientist, but on his journey to becoming the president of an Association for Universities in Research in Astronomy and the telescope scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA,...

Veronica Papendieck(70) is interviewed by her grandson, Jacob Bay(14) about her life.

Through his work with SERVIR, Ashutosh Limaye could be described as one of Earth’s watchdogs. The project scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s job is to take NASA satellite data back down to the Earth and help people use...

One Small Step partners Donna Myrow [no age given] and Dave Rohee (78) discuss the role of journalism, domestic and international politics, and immigration.

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...

Peter Michelson was inspired by the Apollo moon program to study physics; now, he's a professor of physics at Stanford University and works at the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. We talked to Peter about pivoting into a new field after...

Jeffrey Myers knows his way around aerial photogrammetry. As a former lead manager at the Airborne Sensor Facility at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Jeffrey’s work with data collection and earth mapping has been affiliated with NASA’s U-2 program, MODIS, and...

Robin "Rob" Ericson (74) talks to his brother-in-law Clayton "Clay" Nichols (83) about Clay's Army service and his career as a geoscientist.

Sabrina Savage builds instrumentation for solar physics and studies solar flares at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The technology she helps create delivers the most high-resolution pictures of the sun anyone has ever seen. In a society more dependent upon...

Alan Gorchov Negron and Colten Petersen, University of Michigan, share their stories of becoming scientists, and their hopes for their continued research and involvement in geosciences. What is the role of an earth scientist? What is the role of climate...