Search Interviews

Imagine this upbringing: only child, suburbs of Maryland, daughter of a mathematician and a pastry chef. If you guessed that child would achieve a management role with NASA’s famed IceBridge2 mission, congratulations, you truly have exceptional foresight. Linette Boisvert McPartland...

Dr. Alex Lockwood is the project scientist on the science communication team for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute. While earning her Ph.D. in Planetary Astronomy and Science, Alex had the unique opportunity to star...

Adrian Brown is the deputy scientist on the Mars 2020 Rover mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Adrian uses his background in geology to explore Mars via the Mars Rover, living out his childhood fascination with the planets. He...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Nancy and Abby work together at the St. Norbert College Sturzl Center. Abby reflects on her experience working at the office, meeting another student, Adam, and how his life had an impact on the her.

As a leading international expert in weather and climate and Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia, James Marshall Shepherd knows a lot about climate, and just as importantly, how to talk...

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...

A father & daughter homeless experts: Eric Protein Moseley & Erica Moseley discuss their Covid-19 homeless experience before, during, and after with each other as they reminisce about their experience of educating the unhoused of San Francisco about the coronavirus.

Lawrence Friedl discusses his life and experiences as Director of the Applied Sciences Program in the Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters. Interested in space from a young age, he developed an interest in how the environment and public policy...

In this inspiring interview, Becca Barnes, Bianca Rodriguez-Cardona, Evelyn Valdez-Ward, and Ben Sulman, four early-career biogeoscientists come together to share their reflections on what it means to be a scientist today. How can scientific knowledge be spread on social media?...

Dr. Ella Sciamma-O’Brien is a research scientist in laboratory astrophysics and planetary science. As a member of the Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Sciamma-O’Brien has been working on the Titan Haze Simulation (THS) experiment, developed on the...

Conor Nixon, a space scientist at NASA--Goddard Space Flight Center, discusses his work studying the outer planets. Watching the Cosmos show growing up interested him in the solar system and he's been studying the outer planets most of his life....

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...

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...

Ioan Lascu, research geologist at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, shares stories of his work studying minerals and rock magnetism. What do bacteria affect magnetism? What can we learn from stalagmites and stalactites? Why has there been in a...

When Quinyan Duan was a student in China, he found his way into hydropower engineering. He wanted to pursue a graduate degree but couldn’t find the right professor to guide him. He took the difficult step of applying in the...

Rebekah Hounsell is a connoisseur of explosions, and she spends her time helping scientists get the most out of TESS, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission. She also dabbles in helping to design surveys for the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman...

Thomas Barton interviews Chris Barton about his experiences at NASA

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...

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...

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...