This is a picture of me at the Stennis C. Space Center on Feb. 21, 2018. I’m standing in front of the A-1 test stand where I had the opportunity to watch a hot fire test of one of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) engines (RS-25) where the engine reached up to 113 percent thrust level.
Hi! My name is Haley and I’m an undergraduate researcher at the University of Florida (UF) pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Cell Science. Before transferring to UF, I received my A.A. from Santa Fe College.
What do you do? I perform research in the field of astrobiology, the study of whether extraterrestrial life exists, and if it does, how might humans detect it. A common strategy for determining whether a planet used to, or currently does, contain extraterrestrial life is to look for biosignatures. A biosignature is anything that provides scientific evidence of past or present life. Rocks on Earth are commonly used for testing and validating biosignature detection strategies. However, rocks on Earth don’t perfectly match up to the rocks we would see on other planets, specifically Mars. One of the differences between the rocks on Earth and the rocks on Mars is that the rocks on Mars’ surface are much older (> 3.5 Ga) than those on Earth’s surface. This major age difference brings into question how accurate our Earth-sourced Martian analogs are. In order to address this question, my research focuses on how effective a specific biosignature detection strategy called tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) thermochemolysis is at detecting organic molecules in rocks ranging from 1.1-3.2 Ga.
An average day in lab for me. Running a sample through the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and analyzing the resulting chromatographs.
My research directly supports multiple NASA astrobiology missions; however, its biggest impact is seen when interpreting the data gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover which landed on Mars in 2012. Curiosity has performed TMAH thermochemolysis on Martian rocks and the data from this experiment has been downlinked back to Earth. My research directly helps the scientists at NASA interpret this TMAH thermochemolysis data.
What advice do you have for aspiring scientists? Understand and accept that science requires perseverance. Nothing about science is easy, but if you can persist in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success, you will go a long way.
This is me in front of the biosafety cabinet where I inject internal standards into my samples before running them through the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS).
Benjamin during an eruption of Volcán de Fuego or Chi Q’aq’ in Guatemala
Hello everyone. I am a biogeochemist who uses ancient molecules found in lake sediments to investigate interactions between humans and their environment. I am finishing a PhD in biogeochemistry at McGill in Montréal, Québec. I like skiing and ice skating, jazz, and when the earth is not frozen over I spend my lot of time bike-camping and swimming outdoors. I moved to Canada after a degree in geological sciences in England/California and working as an environmental consultant, a water engineer, and as a research assistant at the Complutense University of Madrid.
My current research looks at how the lowland Maya interacted with their environment and how they responded to climate change over 3,300 years. I take samples from Central America, extract organic molecules known as lipids and analyse them using different methods. I use plant waxes as a proxy for vegetation and hydrological change (how wet or dry it was) in the past, polycyclic aromatic carbons (from the incomplete combustion of carbon) as a proxy for biomass burning the past, and faecal stanols as proxies for population change.
My first chapter shows that population declines in the southwest Maya lowlands are associated not only with drought at multiple times throughout history, but also with anomalously wet periods, and has also highlighted potential efforts to reduce soil erosion as well as the use of night soil (human waste) as fertiliser in the past. This work attracted a lot of media interest, including from the CBC, Haaretz, El Mundo, and Archaeology Magazine, and will be vulgarised in the magazine Le Climatoscope. It also forms part of the chapter “Climate Change and Variability in the Protoclassic” in Remaking Maya Civilization, Social and Political Transformations in the Protoclassic Maya Lowlands.
Benjamin in the field in Guatemala collecting leaves for plant wax analyses
Now I am in the process of writing my thesis, which I will submit in December, and working with a digital artist to create a virtual Itzan, the archaeological site where the samples I have analysed were taken from. I think it is important for people to know that ancient societies were affected by climate change and by looking at responses to environmental change in the past how we might better understand anthropogenic climate change today and in the future. I am particularly interested in migration as climate change adaptation and am a member of the McGill Refugee Research Group.
Most students are fortunate enough to be on campuses with interesting seminars and public lectures in different departments that you can attend and make connections between your interests, your research and what is happening in different areas and at different scales. This is interesting and can be fruitful, and helps prevent you from getting stuck in the rut of your niche bit of research. Attending talks in anthropology, geography, and social sciences has given me new perspectives for my thesis, where the question I am researching requires an interdisciplinary approach.
Figure from Keenan et al. (2021) showing population change in the context of palaeoclimate and changes in pollen (a proxy for deforestation).
What is your favorite part about being a scientist, and how did you get interested in science in general?
My favorite part about being a scientist is being able to see fantastic geological sites and learning about some of the weirdest species of Earth’s past. I wish I could say I always had an interest in paleontology, but it wasn’t until the end of my freshman year of college that I realized I had a passion for this field. As a general education requirement, I took Life of the Past. One day, while rapidly taking notes, a slide changed to a photo of a Quetzalcoatlus skeleton. I lost the ability to focus on my scribblings and my mind wandered. So many questions: did this creature fly, how could it fly, could I have ridden it while it was flying? I don’t know if it was the thought of riding this gigantic pterodactyl, or the realization of this ancient yet new world had just come into existence, either way at that moment I was hooked. Within a week I added on Geology as a dual major and started volunteering at the Missouri Institute of Natural Science.
Raptor claw replicates!
What do you do?
Currently I am an undergraduate student, I am studying Geology and Anthropology emphasizing on Paleontology and Archaeology. I am hoping to be a vertebrate paleontologist and a science educator one day. I also volunteer at our local natural science institution. Here I apply what I have learned in my majors and because of this I’ve been able to get my hands into a lot of different projects. I have worked with triceratops bones to prepare them to cast and mold. I have also worked on reshaping the replicated portions of the triceratops to make them biologically accurate. I’ve made replicas of different dinosaur’s teeth and claws to raise funding for the museum. I help classify newly donated rocks and minerals when they come in. I have helped create some of our displays in our mineral exhibit. The museum has also given me the privilege to be a part of their lectures and field trips. During these field trips, I would give guided tours of the museum and take the families to hunt for marine fossils on the premises. I have also given lessons at a local school about varying dinosaurs and what it is like being a paleontologist.
Working on Henry the triceratops
How does your research and outreach contribute to the betterment of society in general?
Being a part of the museum gives me the ability in having a part in outreach programs. These types of programs work with younger generations and stimulates the interest for the field at an early age. These are the next generation of paleontologist, chemists, or biologists that will continue to make advancements in science and history. When we work with the younger generations you know amazing things are bound to happen!
What advice do you have for aspiring scientists?
My advice is to aspiring scientists is never be afraid to put yourself out there. Ask the questions that are pounding in your head. Reach out and talk to that scientist you look up too. Never be ashamed to ask a silly question! Science is founded on hunting down the answers to questions that no one has yet answered.
What is your favorite part about being a scientist and how did you get interested in science in general?
My favorite part about being a scientist is sharing my science with others! Whether it’s creating educational activities, writing blog or social media posts, visiting classrooms, designing museum exhibits or just talking to people I am always happiest when I get to be a part of someone’s scientific journey.
I was first introduced to geology when I was 5 years old and my great grandmother gave me a box of rocks and minerals. From there I began to read and collect more and more. It was then in high school, that I decided I wanted to focus on paleontology because of the great role model I had in my teacher Mr. Mike Koenig who took me fossil hunting. These two events and many others in-between sparked a passionate for earth sciences that has put me on to a track to a professional career as a geologist and paleontologist.
In laymen’s terms, what do you do?
As an undergraduate student in the Calede Lab at Ohio State, I study body size evolution or change over time. By looking at the teeth preserved as fossil from Gophers that lived around 30-11 million years ago, we can determine what the size of those creatures and then compare them to gophers that are alive today.
How does your research/goals/outreach contribute to the understanding of climate change, evolution, paleontology, or to the betterment of society in general?
By observing changes to the size of animals during different times we can understand how climate, and environment affect mammal groups. This is especial critical now as we are facing global climate change. Paleontology can use the past to plan and prepare for the future.
What are your data and how do you obtain your data? In other words, is there a certain proxy you work with, a specific fossil group, preexisting datasets, etc.?
I am use measurements of the teeth (toothrow length) of fossil gophers as well as calculations developed from living rodent training sets to estimate the body mass of these extinct species. I take photos of the toothrows and skulls of specimens in museum collections, which are input into a software to calculate lengths then I determine means and standard deviations for each species studied. For modern species we use weight in grams that has been published in scientific literature. This data is also put through computer analyzes with the incredible help of my advisor Dr. Jonathan Calede that can evaluate the evolution of body size over time, over geographic location, and within the phylogenetic tree.
What advice do you have for aspiring scientists?
Never give up. Even if someone tells you that you will not make it, even if you have a bad day, even if you make a big mistake, even if you get a bad grade….YOU can do it. Believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who will always support you and work hard!
Admittedly, the title of this post is a bit misleading; I didn’t actually go to Ireland to give a talk, in the midst of a pandemic. Rather, I was invited to discuss my research, path into science, and science communication by a graduate student, Luke O’Reilly, at the University College Cork through video conferencing software.
The University College Cork Wednesday Webinar banner
Luke recently began his journey into outreach by establishing a virtual seminar series for the graduate and undergraduate students and professors in his community, as a way to come together and continue learning about topics related to marine science. Luke’s endeavors have been highly successful; not only are those in academia participating, but also members of the general public! To date, about 300 people have signed up to tune into the talks! You too can sign up for this seminar series by clicking here.
Most of the talks to date have included folks presenting their research using figures and text on slides in a ‘traditional’ talk format. But Luke indicated that he wanted to do a more free-form format, to see how that worked with his audience. We both agreed that a lighthearted, off-the-cuff talk would be fun for us both, and we hoped this format helped our audience engage more with us and participate. Neither of us had done such a presentation in this format before.
The social media advertisement Luke made for my talk. He takes the time to craft one for each of his weekly speakers!
To prepare for this talk, I didn’t spend copious amounts of time making a slide show or modifying figures. Instead, I pulled up videos, images, Google Earth, and some slides from previous talks I’ve given. This way, I was able to screen share these resources with the audience when certain topics were touched upon. Personally, this format and style was really fun, kept me on my toes, and allowed me to share a lot of information pretty quickly. Luke indicated he received positive feedback about the talk format as well from audience members!
The topics we covered ranged all over the place, which was really fun! We began by just talking about living at sea for 2 months, and what that is like. I showed the audience a drill bit I had with me, and also showed a short video explaining how we conduct drilling in the middle of the ocean. Topics also then ranged from foraminifera and their ecology, the importance of the Kuroshio Current Extension to the Japanese fishing industry, how this massive current may change under human-induced warming, and we even touched on the topic of tectonics! Audience members asked questions throughout the talk via typing them into a chat box. Luke and I paused for questions throughout the talk, which really allowed for some more in-depth discussion of topics. We also had an additional Q & A session at the end of the presentation.
The cool thing about working in science communication is that I am always learning from other people, and this experience was no different. From experimenting with this talk format, I realized that mixing things up and doing something in a different way can be hugely successful. So take chances! Be bold! You never know how successful an endeavor will be until you try.
You can watch some of the recorded UCC Marine Geology Lectures here on YouTube!
Earlier this year before the world went into lock down, I had the opportunity to participate in an early career researcher (ECR) workshop through the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The workshop was focused on how to write a scientific drilling proposal with colleagues and friends.
The workshop was held at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades New York, just north of New York City. At Lamont, scientists and staff manage U.S. scientific support services for IODP, the major collaborative program which, among several other things, allows scientists to live and work at sea for two months drilling and studying sediment cores. The workshop was specifically for early career researchers, which is loosely defined as a researcher who has gained their Ph.D. but has not achieved tenure (that critical phase in a professor’s career where they receive a permanent residence at their college or university).
The Gary C. Comer building on Lamont’s campus, where the IODP ECR workshop was held.
This workshop, which first ran a few years back, was conceived between Time Scavengers’ own Dr. Andrew Fraass and his close colleague, Dr. Chris Lowery. They, along with their colleagues, built the workshop and it has run every 2-3 years since its conception. What is so neat about the workshop is that it is also run and organized by other ECRs, with the help of more senior scientists.
The first day of the workshop focused on introducing the attendees to aspects of IODP. These included presentations on the past and future of scientific ocean drilling and the IODP proposal writing process. We also did participant introductions, where we stood up and had 1 minute to talk about ourselves, our research, etc. using only images on one slide. We, the participants, were also broken out into groups later in the day by themes we identified ourselves as (for example, I indicated I was in the Biosphere group because I work with fossil and am interested in evolutionary questions). From these breakout groups, we then identified 5 places in the Pacific Ocean we would like to target for drilling. Later that night, the workshop organizers held a networking reception for us at a nearby building on campus. The networking event was incredibly cool (they fed us dinner, and it was really great food) and useful (I had the opportunity to meet and speak with other ECRs who have similar interests as myself).
My introductory slide. The upper left box contained our image, name, and association; the upper right box contained a research image (I cheated and included two) and our research interests in three words or less, the bottom left box contained our research expertise and any contact information, the bottom right box contained a mediocre skill we have (again I cheated and used this to plug this website).
The second day of the workshop, we arrived and discussed how to obtain data for a drilling proposal. Just to give some insight into what goes into a drilling proposal, this is a 15+ page document in which scientists write out their hypotheses, where they want to drill on the seafloor, preliminary data that says something to support the hypotheses outlined, and what we call site survey data. Site surveys are when scientists take smaller ships out with an apparatus pulled behind the ship. These apparatuses use sonar to map the features of the bottom of the seafloor, but also the properties of the sediment below the seafloor. The changing densities of the different sediments appear as ‘reflectors’, allowing an MRI-like preliminary investigation of the sediments in which the scientists want to drill into. An entire presentation was dedicated to obtaining older site survey data. We also heard presentations about the different drill ships and drilling platforms implemented by IODP. The second part of the day was again spent working in groups. This time, however, we split ourselves into different groups depending on what area of the Pacific Ocean we were interested in working on. I put myself with the group interested in drilling the southeast Pacific, off the southern coast of New Zealand. Here, we began to come up with hypotheses for our proposals and begin to write those down.
Example of a seismic image from a seismic site survey. The very strong, prominent lines in here are called ‘reflectors’. This image shows the location of a proposed drill location, named SATL-56A. From this seismic image, we can interpret that the top layers of ocean sediments are very flat. The seafloor, which is recognized based on its more ‘spotty’ appearance and lack of horizontal lines, is very prominent here (the top of which is indicated by the green reflector line). These images are essential to include in a drilling proposal so everyone has an idea about what might be expected when drilling.
The third and fourth days of the workshop included limited presentations, with more time dedicated to letting the groups work on their proposals. One of the main outcomes of the workshop is to have participants walk away with an idea of how to write a drilling proposal, but also to have the basic groundwork in place for a proposal with a group of people who share similar interests. So ample time was given for the participants to refine their hypotheses, find some preliminary data about their drilling locations from online databases, and build a presentation to present to the entire workshop. On the afternoon of the fourth day, the teams presented their ideas to everyone, including more senior scientists who have submitted drilling proposals in the past and have worked on panels to evaluate others’ drilling proposals.
All in all, this was a great workshop that really allowed for folks to learn more about the IODP program, where and how to find important resources, and how to begin writing these major drilling proposals. These events are particularly important for scientists from marginalized backgrounds and first-generation scientists. For me (a first-generation scientist), making connections with others is sometimes very difficult, as I have terrible imposter syndrome (when you feel like you don’t belong in a community and that you will be found out as an imposter) and am hyper aware that I was raised quite differently than most of my peers. Being in such a setting, with other scientists, forced to work together, is terrifying but also good because I had the opportunity to talk to and work with people I would not normally work with. For example, I had wonderful discussions with microbiologists and professors whose work focuses more on tectonics, people from two research areas which I hardly interacted with previously.
Me after collecting pyrite concretions in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi.
What is your favorite part about being a scientist and how did you get interested in science in general? Hi! My name is Larry Collins and I am a PhD Candidate at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. As a freshman at Mansfield University, I took Physical Geology with Dr. Chris Kopf and he ignited my true passion for geology. Dedicating time and energy into instruction was what Dr. Kopf did and this made me even more excited to learn about the processes that affect and shape our earth. After five years of teaching high school earth science, AP Environmental Science, and Ecology, I wanted to pursue graduate education so that I could share this passion with future educators.
In laymen’s terms, what do you do? In my master’s program, I was part of a large project that examined pieces of pyrite that were found within the Demopolis Chalk outside of Starkville, MS. We were attempting to understand the origin of these pieces of pyrite and what they could also tell us about earth’s early atmosphere. While I enjoyed this project, my true passion was understanding more about how people think and learn about the earth. These are the exact types of questions that Geoscience Education Researchers (like me) tackle. Specifically, my interests are in the nature of science and assessment. I study how students develop an understanding of the nature of science throughout their undergraduate careers and I develop my own instruments and assessments to accomplish this research goal. I also study performance-based assessments can be used as tools for learning in order to improve geological literacy.
Pyrite concretions within the Demopolis Chalk. The chalk outcrops are Late Cretaceous in age.
How does your research/goals/outreach contribute to the understanding of climate change, evolution, paleontology, or to the betterment of society in general?Understanding the nature of science is important for when someone encounters new scientific data or media in the news, on the web, or during a scientific presentation. The ideas that folks holds about the nature of science are linked to their willingness to accept scientific ideas such as climate change and evolution which have been labeled as controversial. Understanding how students develop conceptions of the nature of science also ensures that they will understand how new knowledge in science develops and be more accepting of ideas that have been deemed as controversial.
What are your data and how do you obtain your data? I use interviews, performance-based assessments, and surveys with students in order to collect evidence of their understanding of the nature of science. I draw on my past instruments such as the VNOS and VASI developed by Lederman, Lederman, Schwartz, and colleagues to also inform my work.
At the Earth Educators’ Rendezvous, here I am leading a workshop on performance-based assessments.
What advice would you give to young aspiring scientists? As a first generation scientist, I would say that you should always apply for any opportunity that you hear of. Apply even if you feel like you are not good enough for it because imposter syndrome is a real thing and a lot of us in academia have it! You never know the great opportunities (such as graduate research opportunities) that can come your way by putting yourself out there. It may be tough, but always reach out to scientists that you respect and admire…a lot of them are friendly and always willing to share their career paths with you!
