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As a child, Luke Oman was always looking out the window. Today, he works on atmospheric processing for NASA. How do volcanic eruptions affect everyday life? What happens when sulfur dioxide gases from volcanoes interact with sulfate aerosol and stay...

Brian Cairns works for the NASA Goddard Institute for space studies in New York, where he focuses on developing instruments that will make better measurements of small particles in space. In this interview Dr. Cairns discusses his start in engineering,...

Glenn Orton is so deep in Jupiter mission information that he gets envious when he’s not involved in a space project studying the gas giant. The senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory studies the composition and structure...

While Patrick Taylor spends a huge chunk of his time in the clouds, his work has nothing to do with daydreaming. The Research scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center is working on understanding more about the role of clouds in...

Miguel Román, a Physical researcher Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, shares his journey from his childhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico to NASA. Seeing the impacts of hurricanes and urban growth where he grew up, and the practical...

John Geismann, professor of geosciences at the University of Texas Dallas, shares his discovery into the science field and favorite aspects of working with students. He discusses the critical point we are in society and need for the global community...

Dr. Amy Winebarger is an astrophysicist in the Heliophysics and Planetary Science Office at NASA. Listen to Amy talk about what makes sounding rockets awesome to work with, the rewards of being a mentor, and how a New York Times...

Meet Eric Lindstrom, a former Physicial Oceanographer for NASA who now works with Saildrone, Inc to map the ocean floor. Eric spent his first day at the beach when he was 3 days old and has been fascinated with marine...

The story of Micheal’s thoughts and feelings during and after the attack

John Mather has an exciting year ahead of him- he's the senior scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, the planned successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, which is scheduled to be launched this October. We talk to John about...

Padma Yanamandra-Fisher, a research scientist at the Space Science Institute, shares stories of her career in planetary science. She recounts how defining the launch of Voyager was and the significance of the growth in the field since. Padma shares her...

Sandra Cauffman was told growing up in Costa Rica that she couldn’t be an electrical engineer because she was a woman. Decades into a career which has largely involved getting her hands dirty building instruments to fix on spacecraft, the...

For Jim Pizzuto, a career in science was never the plan. His father was a landscape painter, and he grew up surrounded by art and the majestic landscape paintings that his father produced. By the time he entered college, he...

Daniel Minguez, a geophysicist for Chevron, helps create new geologic models of the earth’s layers, trying “to build geologic stories for how different geologic elements got there.” Daniel discusses his work which focuses on boring techniques and navigating plate tectonics....

After one spends 50 years with the same organization, what’s next? That’s the question Dave Mao is attempting to answer after a highly-decorated career at the Carnegie Institution for Science. Born in Shangai and raised in Taiwan, Mao came to...

How will we search for life beyond Earth? If we do find life, what are the implications? As an Astrobiologist, Dr. Alfonso Davila travels to 'planetary analogue environments' that are remarkably similar to areas on other planets -- Chile's Atacama...

Nicholeen Viall is a research astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, with her research focus being the sun and solar wind. Listen to Dr. Viall talk about her start in space science, her greatest accomplishment, and her hopes for...

Woody Turner, the program scientist for biological diversity and manager for ecological forecasting programs at NASA, and one of the few people in the world who directly harness the power of space to solve a whale of a problem –...

The start of a fruitful career for Richard Eckman was being on a team which discovered that the stratosphere and ozone varied in relation to the sun’s 27-day rotation. Eckman, who now works with NASA’s Atmospheric Composition Modeling and Analysis...

Sprites are electrical discharges like lightning, but up in the middle atmosphere. Having only been in the scientific literature since the 1990s, sprites captured Geoff McHarg’s imagination while observing the Aurora in Alaska. Perfect for a guy whose view of...

Michael Freilich, Director of NASA's Earth Science Division, shares about his life studying the oceans and Earth as a system. While still in his high school's oceanography club, he started exploring a question about how waves move that later became...

Being a Hydrologist was never on Matthew Rodell’s radar, let alone working for NASA. But he always trusted the path ahead. Now as their Deputy Director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HGB) at Goddard Space Flight Center,...

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...

[Recorded: September 23, 2022] Kaitlyn (31) and Conor (19) record a One Small Step conversation in Charlottesville, VA. Kaitlyn is a post-graduate student at the University of Virginia and shares a passion for universal healthcare, equitable access and ownership of...

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...