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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...

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...

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...

Meet Brian Campbell, a NASA Senior Earth Science Specialist who works with satellite missions like ICESat-2, SMAP, GPM and with the NASA GLOBE Program, including the NASA GLOBE Observer Citizen Science App. He is passionate about making the plethora of...

Rachel Hampton ended up in the geosciences because she couldn’t find the art history class she was looking for. From asking a TA if she could join him on fieldwork to doing her senior thesis on volcanoes without a professor...

John Booker Grab grew up in New Mexico and remembers, at the age of 8, running out the back door into the Santa Fe National Forest to go and collect fossils. He then went on to study at Montana State...

Dr. Gupta was unsure of what she wanted to work on after finishing medical school, but she found her calling and is now the Open Innovation and Community Applications manager at NASA headquarters. Listen to Dr. Gupta talk about her...

Erica Bickford’s advice to early career scientists or students is to look outside academia and explore all the potential career options available to scientists. She is particularly aware of the importance of science in daily life and in the policy...

Rafael Loureiro may confess to being an introvert, but he has no fear of people. He started off talking about AGU’s Voices of Science bootcamp, which he is participating in this year to develop his spokesperson skills. That segued into...

Dr. David Smith is a microbiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center. David led the design, construction, and validation of two NASA Balloon Program payloads carrying biology experiments (E-MIST and MARSBOx) as well as the use of a bio-aerosol collector...

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...

His application to be an astronaut may have been turned down, but Paul Hertz is playing a big role in helping us understand how the universe works as the Director of Astrophysics at NASA. He found his passion for astrophysics...

Dorian Janney is a science communicator for NASA asking the big question: how do we make science accessible? Sparked into Earth Space Science through her son’s curiosity with space, we talk to Dorian on how her journey as an educator...

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...

Philips Aizebeokhai talks about the path his career has taken, turns and all. Although he started out working in the oil and gas industry, he found himself drawn to academia and the chance to be excited every day through his...

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...

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...

Chad Weiss (46) speaks with his wife, Nicola Wiess (46) and their children, Evan Weiss (15), Megan Weiss (15), Cameron Weiss (15), Ian Weiss (13) and Sean Weiss (16), about their work in the sciences. The children talk about they...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Adeena Teres is a high school science teacher in Florida, although she tried a few different careers before following her passion for teaching. As a teacher, there are always opportunities to inspire students either into science careers or towards other...

As a Program Manager for NASA Headquarters Earth Science Division, Barry Lefer helps fund important global research and field campaigns that are measuring air quality and greenhouse gases. And judging by these studies, Barry thinks the future is looking good!...