"It's hard to isolate cause and effect – we have to take nature on its own terms." an interview with Mary Hudson and William Lotko

Mary Hudson and Bill Lotko are both professors at Dartmouth University and researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Both study space physics, with Mary focusing on Van Allen radiation belts, and Bill looking at interactions between the magnetosphere...

"Finding New Ways to Build the Paleo Story." an interview with Melanie Perello

There’s a bit of a culture change moving from Ohio to New Hampshire, which Melanie Perello, Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University, did as part of her studies. Would you be surprised that going from either to Tibet to study paleoclimate...

"I originally wanted to restore paintings, but that didn't work out." an interview with Bärbel Hönisch

Bärbel Hönisch, Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences at Columbia University also known as Queen of Boron, transported us millions of years beyond the ice cores to the realm when Greenland had no ice. She took hold of a magical instrument...

"It was fun to think about how all the puzzle pieces fit together. How is this organization going to work?" An Interview with Anita Dey

Anita Dey is the strategic partnerships manager of outreach and engagement for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and co-chair of NASA headquarters' Asian American and Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group. Anita spends her days working with underserved communities and using the...

"A Label by Any Other Name." an interview with Andrew Binley and Lee Slater

A conversation between student and professor, this discussion reveals the subtle dynamics between good friends, even when they outwardly seem to be very similar. Lee Slater met Andrew Binley when the former asked the latter for a job at Lancaster...

“We all have that dream of being the person who walks across plains on Mars." an interview with Jacob Bleacher

Jacob Bleacher has spent a great deal of time preparing for Mars and the moon, even though he has never left the Earth’s orbit. The research scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center is currently on detail at NASA Headquarters as...

"Working Together to Prepare for the Unknown." an interview with Gari Mayberry

For the last 14 years, Gari Mayberry has put her volcanology background to work as a disaster response coordinator at USAID. Disasters come in many shapes and sizes so that specialty is a start, but often Gari finds herself connecting...

“I enjoy knowing that a lot of people do care about [the climate] and they care to learn about it.” an interview with Shelby Hurst

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...

"There would not be life without geosciences." an interview with Dwayne Brown

How can scientists tell the story of science so that the public listens and understands? Dwayne Brown is the Senior Communication Officer for the Science Directorate at NASA and works with hundreds of scientists to communicate their ideas on television,...

"Cracking the Carbon Cycle while Using the Grill." an interview with Marc Kramer

Environmental chemist Marc Kramer, Washington State University, has spent an inordinate amount of time talking and climate and weather in the rural parts of your nation. As he says in this interview, “there isn’t a single farmer who isn't interested...

"The Rise of Informatics." an interview with Peter Fox and Sarah Ramdeen

In the mid-2000s, a small group of leaders at AGU, including Peter Fox, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, saw an opportunity to shape or reshape how geoscientists work together under a new cross-cutting discipline. As a result, “Earth and space Science Informatics”...

“I liked the thorough teachers I had, because you work hard, but it helps you academically.” An interview with Bernardo and Anne Quidez

Anne Quidez interviews her father, Bernardo Quidez, about his career and research over the years. They talk about how science and data analysis have changed, becoming more accessible to students, and about Bernardo’s experiences in working for the government to...

"We as humans have just this innate desire to explore." an interview with Elizabeth Rampe

Elizabeth Rampe, a mineralogist, studying Mars at the NASA Johnson Space Center, shares about her life and work. She focuses on minerals on the surface of Mars which formed from water-rock interactions, which have the potential to show billions of...

"[Science] lets us imagine things we hadn't thought possible." an interview with Sarah Vines and Robert Allen

Sarah Vines and Robert Allen once drove twenty hours to see a spaceship launch. Now, Sarah and Robert are married, post-doctoral students working in the laboratories of Johns Hopkins University. Sarah researches how magnetic fields form, and what earth’s magnetic...

“If we’re not taking action then we’re part of the problem." an interview with Amber Soja

Amber Soja’s career is on fire. The resident at NASA’s Langley Research Center studies fire regimes and how they are being affected by climate change. “Every fire season is worse,” she says, adding that the changing fire regime is proof...

"When something changes your understanding, that's why you go into this field." an interview with Brian Day

Brian Day, of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Virtual Institute, leads a group of scientists in visualization and analysis of spacecraft data. Brian was taught that there’s no water on the moon, there’s no atmosphere on the moon, and the moon...

"Literally co-wrote the book on climate modeling" interview with Warren Washington by Rajul Pandya

Warren Washington, a pioneer of climate modeling, shares his story with Rajul Pandya about his career in the atmospheric sciences. Discussing a lifetime pushing for the growth of diversity in the sciences and a better understanding of the climate. Going...

"Points that fall off the curve are either a mistake or the Nobel Prize." an interview with Glenn Orton

Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses his career exploring the outer Solar System that started with the Pioneer 10 and 11 missions, and extended forward to Cassini and more recently Juno. Interested in space...

“How is it that we collect stories [and] create spaces for those stories to be told?” An interview with Michele Koppes and Heidi Roop

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...

"I've been a professional astronomer for over 20 years, [and it] still gives me goosebumps." an interview Michelle Thaller

Michelle Thaller, science communicator at NASA Goddard, discusses how she persisted in following her scientific passions even after being discouraged by teachers and guidance counselors. She also talked about why non-scientists should care about things so far away from Earth:...

"Celestial events are always a winner.” an interview with Kristen Erickson

Kristen Erickson, Director of science engagements and partnership, recently helmed NASA’s efforts to involve over 154 million adult Americans with direct participation with the 2017 total eclipse – the largest engagement effort in NASA history. But in her more than...

"I learned from watching tv that you could make a living working with weather and how cool is that?" an interview with George Huffman

George Huffman calls himself a classic weather person, in part because by the fourth grade in North Central Ohio, he already was excited about the prospect that you could make a job studying weather. At the NASA Goddard Space Flight...

"You can make the claim that airborne transport of dust gives us rum.” an interview with Hal Maring

Hal Maring once risked his life for a box of fog. The physical scientist at NASA Headquarters was once on a New Zealand research cruise in the Tasman Sea when the vessel hit bad weather. They took down some of...

“Apollo 11….That's when I said, I don't have to be a businessman, I don't have to go into the military." an interview with Michael Meyer

Michael Meyer, NASA's Chief Scientist for the Mars Exploration Program, talks about his life and work in science. As a teenager working as a deckhand on a treasure diving boat in Florida, he was hired to replace some fired divers...