Search Interviews

Mei Zheng studies and teaches atmospheric science at Peking University. She’s passionate about training the next generation of scientists, and ensuring that everyone has access to clean air. “A teacher’s job is to encourage, inspire, and challenge students to do...

A summary of the professional life of a scientist. Both what it takes to become one and what it is like to be a scientist in the modern world.

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...

Carlos Nobre is a climate scientist with the Institute of Advanced Science in Brazil. Together with twelve hundred scientists, he organized the largest scientific experiment in the Amazon forest, with eleven research towers analyzing water vapor, carbon dioxide, energy balance,...

Claudia Sherman interviews her mother, Dr. Leticia Toledo Sherman about her life as an immigrant and how she never doubted her ability to succeed in her field of chemistry.

Dana Bolles works for the Science Engagement and Partnerships Division at NASA Headquarters. She was first hired as a Payload Safety Engineer with the Kennedy Space Center and since then, has worked at four NASA centers in mission support roles...

Tom Krimigis works at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and was previously the principal investigator for the Voyager I and Voyager II missions. A student of Van Allen, Tom built detectors to search for Van Allen belts on...

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...

Is it a good time to be a climate scientist? Yes, says Phil Mote, Director Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University. Predictions over the past 40 years are coming true and while some look at that with...

Jim Irons grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in Cleveland when environmental conservation was becoming more important for society, but it wasn’t until the Cuyahoga River in his hometown of Cleveland caught on fire in 1969 that his desire...

From her teaching position at National Taiwan University, Haojia Abby Run is studying nitrogen-related pollution by fossil fuels and fertilizers and warning people in Taiwan of its damage to the ocean. A female Asian oceanographer, who grew up in China’s...

I interviewed one of my colleagues in the clinical laboratory as she sets her eyes on retirement. The laboratory profession has grown significantly, and the demand for new scientists is one of the greatest challenges in healthcare. Mary Kay is...

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...

Space Plasma physicist, Daniel Verscharen of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory - part of University College London based in the Surrey countryside - is drawn to fast things- fast moving electrons in space plasma and a fast timeline to propose...

Roberta Rudnick, Professor at University of California Santa Barbara, was captivated by science from a young age, witnessing the Mt. Saint Helens eruption while in college, and traveling the globe to understand plate tectonics, and how and why continents form...

After being drawn to the oceans at an early age, Paula continues to examine many factors that influence changes in the oceans. As a program manager for NASA, she enjoys the opportunity to work with dedicated researchers and learn how...

Duane Waliser’s path in science meandered from an Oregon apple farm to a UCSD Oceanography institute to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he now serves as the Chief Scientist for the Earth Science and Technology Directorate. At JPL, Duane helps...

France Lagroix, Research Scientist at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris and AGU Leader share stories of her passion and the value of paleomagnetism. She talks of the discovery during her Ph'd research where she developed a novel application...

In this interview, part of the AGU Narratives project and AGU Paths Through Science, Juan Declet-Barreto discusses his work with the Union of Concerned Scientists, his involvement with the Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX), and the forces that shaped his path...

Chris Ballentine, University of Oxford, discusses his work as "helium hunter," seeking global reserves of Helium, significant as a natural resource-limited in its scope. Chris discusses geopolitics and the need for the market to drive the search for helium which...

Tong Zhu atmospheric chemist and university professor shares his experiences studying air pollution and its impacts on human health. Reflecting on how past discoveries influence solutions and how those solutions impact government policy. He shares stories about his work for...

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...

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...

Kristin Pratscher might have only recently received her Bachelor’s degree but she already has plenty of experience in her field of geology. From a field camp in Turkey to being part of the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE) program...

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...