Search Interviews

Dr. Wendy Bohon is an earthquake geologist and the Senior Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, or IRIS for short (not the IRS). But how did she end up there if she went to school for...

Melissa Trainer is a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and is working on the upcoming Dragonfly mission. We talked to her about pitching Dragonfly and finding out whether it got accepted on TV, accepting opportunities you didn’t...

For Paula Buchanan, disaster scientist and emergency management researcher, the whole point of science is to share it with others so that it can benefit everyone. We talked to her about being a “degree collector,” persevering and setting boundaries in...

How does one go from being a B+ student who got dressed down by her 8th grade softball coach to the Division Director of the Earth Science Division at NASA? While this might sound like the plot of an inspirational...

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...

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...

Curt Niebur is the Lead Program Scientist for Planetary Flight Programs at NASA Headquarters, which means that he works on all the NASA robotic missions that don’t go to Mars- you know, a very small mom-and-pop operation. We talked to...

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,...

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...

As much as Prosanta Chakrabarty loves his job as an ichthyology professor at LSU, his favorite part of the job is making human connections while doing fieldwork around the world. And whether it's trying every single cocktail in a bar...

David Shiffman is a shark guy first, marine conservation biologist second. Sharks are in his Twitter handle, he’s writing a book about them, and he was wearing a shark shirt the day we interviewed him. We talked with David about...

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.

Melissa Scruggs is currently working towards earning her PhD in Volcanology at UC Santa Barbara, and there's nothing else in the world she would rather be doing. But she didn't always know this- after dropping out of high school to...

Noah Petro is a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center- which doesn’t seem like much, but it includes being the lab chief of the Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab at Goddard and being the project scientist...

Kerissa Battle (42) an ecologist in the Catskills talks with a close family friend Leana Tishim (13) a student on Long Island about her childhood and the experiences and lessons learned. She also shares a few lessons about finding oneself...

A big part of Mónica Feliú-Mójer’s life mission is to help use science communication as a tool for equity and inclusion, and she has certainly achieved this working with two non-profits called Ciencia Puerto Rico and iBiology. Mónica has spent...

Meet Xubin Zeng, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Arizona. Dr. Zeng was amazed by the power of mathematics at a young age and found his calling in physics. Listen to Dr. Zeng discuss what inspires him,...

In this interview Lara talks about her time as a teacher in both public and private schools. She shares her experiences with teaching through her 25 years of teaching as well as advice for upcoming teachers.

Trena Ferrell’s story with NASA all started with an email requesting an in class visit for her students. Now as a Public Outreach Lead for NASA, she sits down with us to talk about the importance of STEAM (emphasis on...

Peter Falcon is an Earth Science communications specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory with an atypical background: behavioral science. As a communications specialist, Peter acts as a liaison between NASA projects – such as the CloudSat program – and students,...

Gabriel Filippelli is a professor of earth sciences at Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis, and the executive director of the Environmental Resilience Institute. We talked to him about how the first moon landing and the environment he grew up in...

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...

Renee Weber is the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which basically means she represents all science at the center- pretty cool if you ask us! We talked to Renee about the importance of seismology, building personal relationships...

Some of the materials Francis McCubbin works with as the astromaterials curator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center include meteorites that were collected in Antarctica, solar wind samples, pieces of asteroids and comets, and the Apollo rocks brought back from the...

Michael Hesse is the Director of Science at NASA’s Ames Research Center, focusing on space biological science. We talked to him about being a good leader, doing science all over the world, and the joys of racing cars.