Search Interviews

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...

Steve Montzka has been at NOAA for 28 years, working on atmospheric science, atmosphere chemistry, and trace gases in the atmosphere. He started there as a post-doc, drawn by the work he saw NOAA scientists doing on the hole in...

As a mission scientist with NASA's Operation IceBridge, John Sonntag has been keeping an eye on the polar ice caps for the better part of 20 years. The good news is, he is very well-versed in the science and analysis...

Thomas Wagner, NASA's Program Scientist for the cryosphere, discusses how his life has developed to study the Arctic and Antarctic. Even though as a student he initially found himself bored by studying glaciology, he soon discovered a passion for polar...

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...

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...

Alice Hill talks about her work at Stanford University's Hoover Institute on mitigating risk from natural hazards. She discusses her work in the Obama Administration running climate change programs for the Department of Homeland Security. She also worked at the...

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...

In research, Dalia Kirschbaum literally seeks landslide victories, though in her case this entails finding disasters. The research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center uses satellite monitoring to get clear predictions about actual landslides through satellite information. “My work...

An inspiring physics teacher, a lesson on the Copernican Revolution, and an immense awe sparked by the night sky ignited a passion for learning and research for Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Dr. Zurbuchen shares...

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...

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...

Virginia Wasserberg, community leader of a Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) project in Virginia Beach, shares her journey of community activism after a flooding disaster in her hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia. She discusses how her work with the TEX has...

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...

Dr. Jim Green has spent 38 years of his life working at NASA. He started there with a fresh Ph.D. in Earth magnetospheric science and helped pioneer the magnetosphere research group at Marshall Space Flight Center. He spent 12 years...

As a deputy section manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Carmen Boening is keenly focused on rising with the tide. The trouble is, the water level isn’t going down as the climate warms. Partly through the monitoring of a set...

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...

The realization that a purple sunset in Wisconsin traced back to the 1991 volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines fueled Chip Trepte’s interest in the movement of volcanic aerosols in the upper atmosphere. “It was a stunning revelation...

Bernard Chovitz has seen it all when it comes to geodesy. From before it was an official field in the early 40s to being one of many AGU sections today, Bernard talks about how the field and science in general...

Richard Alley is a professor in glaciology and loves what he does. He talks about gathering ice cores from Antarctica as an undergraduate, only to return for his PhD and continue the work. He’s measured fallout from atomic bombs tests...

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...

Nearing the end of her career, Anne Douglass, at NASA Godard Space Flight Center, has provided the scientific community with a better understanding of the ozone layer that protects us all from ultraviolet radiation. Anne describes the energy that it...

Alex Young has a great finger on the weather. But the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center’s attention is focused far higher than any storm cloud. He studies space weather and...

Christopher Shuman is on faculty at University of Maryland Baltimore County and a research scientist in the Cryospheric Sciences Lab at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Christopher has extensive work history in Greenland and in Antarctica, analyzing layers in...

Having an idol is important in science so you can see yourself doing something similar. Gregory Cutter met his idol, Jacques Cousteau, when he was an assistant professor at Old Dominion University. As an oceanography professor, he worked with different...