Priya Nanjappa didn’t really have a career plan- she just followed her interests and was open to trying new things. That’s what led her to her current position as a commissioner for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she helps implement laws that govern oil and gas development. We talked to Priya about her early love for the outdoors and birdwatching, which gave her an idea about where her interests lay when figuring out what to major in in college. We also spoke about...

Paula Buchanan is a disaster scientist and an emergency management researcher. Her job is to help effectively communicate the science of emergencies and natural disasters so they can empower themselves to do something- for Paula, there is no point to science if it isn’t benefitting others. In this episode, we talked to Paula about pivoting from science to social science, or as her dad says, being a “degree collector.” She also shares advice about persevering and setting boundaries as a woman...

Dante Lauretta, Regents’ Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Arizona and the principal investigator for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample mission, has been working on bringing back samples from Asteroid Bennu since 2004- and he still has two more years before he might be able to touch them. We talked to Dante about the amount of patience required when working in science- from submitting (and getting rejected) numerous proposals to seeing births and deaths and marriages and...

Wendy Bohon majored in theatre in college and moved out to LA to become an actor after graduation. So how did she end up becoming an earthquake geologist and the Senior Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. We talked to Wendy about her unconventional career path on our latest Sci & Tell episode. She told us about how the Hector Mine earthquake changed her entire career path, overcoming imposter syndrome (hint: it involves a therapy...

After a summer of erratic weather and the recent IIRC report, the effects of climate change seem urgent now more than ever. Which is why we were so excited to talk to Saleh Ahmed on Sci & Tell. Saleh is a professor of Environmental Studies, Global Studies, and Public Policy at Boise State University. His research focuses on how climate change is affecting marginalized communities around the world, whether that be communities on coastal Bangladesh or India, Rohingya refugees, or people...

The James Webb Space Telescope, which is the planned successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, is set to launch this October. I don’t know about you, but we here at AGU are very excited! We were lucky enough to talk to John Mather, the senior scientist for the James Webb, on our latest Sci & Tell episode. We learned about his journey to becoming a scientist, and he even talked to us a bit about James Webb’s capability. But if you think the telescope is the most exciting part of his career,...

As much as Prosanta Chakrabarty loves his job as an ichthyology professor at LSU, his favorite part of the job is making human connections while doing fieldwork around the world. And whether it’s trying every single cocktail at a bar in Tanzania or trash talking bosses in Bengali to locals in Kuwait, Prosanta has made tons of great connections and memories throughout his career. We talked to Prosanta about knowing he wanted to be a zoologist from a young age, discovering new fish around the...

Ed Weiler only answered to one person when he was the Associate Administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters- the President of the United States. And after a decades long career in astronomy, working on everything from the Hubble telescope to the Mars program, he’s now spending his retirement playing tennis and raising a puppy. We talked to Ed about building a telescope at age 13, finding life outside of Earth in the near future, and leading a team of scientists at NASA- and that’s just the...

A big part of Mónica Feliú-Mójer’s life mission is to help use science communication as a tool for equity and inclusion, and she has certainly achieved this working with two non-profits called Ciencia Puerto Rico and iBiology. Mónica has spent over 15 years making science culturally accessible to different communities in Puerto Rico, and she is eager to continue building those relationships throughout her career. We talked to her about the “scientists without a title” she grew up around in...

Melissa Scruggs’s path to becoming a scientist is anything but straightforward. From getting pregnant in, and dropping out of high school, to being a single mom taking classes at a community college, to learning later in life that she has autism, Melissa has overcome a lot. But oh man is she kicking ass now as a Ph.D. candidate studying volcanology in beautiful California. We talked with Melissa about adversity, perseverance, and her dream to someday wear a certain silver suit. This episode...

If Sharmilla Bhattachrya wasn’t Chief Scientist for Astrobionics at NASA Ames Research Center, she’s probably be an actress. And while her contributions on stage would likely be legendary, we’re happy to have her at NASA learning about how space affects human biology. We talked with her about the challenges that scientists face, her proudest achievement (it’s not science-related), and that aforementioned theater performance.  This episode was produced by Shane M Hanlon and mixed by Collin...

If Sharmila Bhattacharya wasn’t Program Scientist for Space Biology at NASA Headquarters, she’d probably be an actress. And while her contributions on stage would likely be legendary, we’re happy to have her at NASA learning about how space affects human biology. We talked with her about the challenges that scientists face, her proudest achievement (it’s not science-related), and that aforementioned theater performance.  This episode was produced by Shane M Hanlon and mixed by Collin...

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 Hallmark movie, this was real life for Karen St. Germain. For our inaugural episode, we talked with her about mentorship, the value of being able to communicate science, and how perseverance can pay off. This episode was produced by Shane M Hanlon and mixed by Collin...