Dr. Christina Viviano-Beck: “Be nice to people, and conduct yourself professionally and your science responsibly – it matters”.
Interview conducted by Dr. Lynnae Quick:
Dr. Christina Viviano-Beck is a Staff Scientist in the Planetary Exploration Group at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). I first met Dr. Christina Viviano-Beck while finishing up my dissertation at APL (she was gracious enough to share an office with a then-grad student! :). She works on the CRISM instrument, specializing in visible/near-infrared and thermal infrared spectroscopy, and the geology of Mars. Her interests lie in understanding the evolution of Mars over time, and the environments that existed during the early history of Mars, as preserved in the rock record.
Recent Publication:
Viviano-Beck, C., Seelos, F., Murchie, S. Kahn, E., Seelos, K. Taylor, H. Taylor, K., Ehlmann, B., Wisemann, S., Mustard, J. and Morgan, M. F. (2014), Revised CRISM spectral parameters and summary products based on the currently detected mineral diversity on Mars, JGR-Planets, 119(6), 1403-1431.
Interview:
1. How did you first become interested in planetary science?
My grandparents on my mom’s side were science oriented – my grandmother was a science teacher and my grandfather had a landscape business (and a degree in forestry). So growing up, many of our family visits would include small experiments in the kitchen and exploring the outdoors. My siblings and I would spend our summer vacations trying to find brachiopods washed up along my grandparents’ cottage shore on Lake Erie. The encouragement for exploration and uninhibited curiosity during those visits stuck with me. I took to math and physics in school and was encouraged by my parents to pursue that interest. After taking my first astronomy and geology courses in college, I knew a more multidisciplinary approach to science would appeal to me. I had to test out the field quite a bit to find my niche. I think my motto must have been “try everything!” I counted and classified diatoms in Antarctic sediments, I characterized seismic activity in Colorado, and finally I took my first remote sensing course on a semester abroad in Australia. I absolutely loved playing around with the images in ENVI and realized if I could somehow merge this with my interest in space/physics/geology it would be a winning combination. And lo-and-behold there was an actual discipline called planetary science.
Opportunity to participate in the NSF Grad Forum
Congrats to the L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship Winners!
L’Oréal USA Announced the winners of the Women in Science Fellowship. Fantastic science including some exciting astrophysics! 🙂 Congrats to all! (And this is a yearly thing so look out for the application next year and think about applying!)
Sabrina Stierwalt, University of Virginia – Dr. Stierwalt is an astrophysicist leading a multi-university team on ground-breaking research to understand how galaxies were formed. Stierwalt has been committed to promoting STEM education throughout her career, including her time as co-founder of the Graduate Women in Physics at Cornell and her current role as a volunteer teacher for Dark Skies, Bright Kids, an afterschool program for underserved rural students.
What *not* to wear
We’ve probably all seen the fallout from #shirtstorm and #shirtgate regarding the inappropriate shirt Dr. Matt Taylor wore during the landing of the Rosetta comet lander this week.
If you are not familiar with this, though, please check out the following webpages:
New List of Awards – Nominate Deserving Scientists!
From Emily Lakdwalla:
Before women can be recognized for their contribution to planetary science and astronomy, they have to be nominated. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women may not be getting nominated for prizes very frequently. To encourage people to nominate more women for prizes, I asked Planetary Society web intern and fellow Woman in Planetary Science Tanya Harrison to scrounge around the Web, locating information on what prizes are out there for Earth and planetary sciences and astronomy, when nominations are due, and what’s involved in nomination packages. She came up with a huge list, available to all in a Google Doc. The list includes prizes for any scientist, young scientists, mid-career scientists, end-of-career scientists, journalists, and those who serve the community as educators or advocates.
- Award List (it should let you request permission to edit)
Some of the deadlines listed inside it are past; but most of these prizes are annual and one can assume that nominations will be due in
2015 at around the same calendar date that they were in 2014. Last year, GSA nominations were due February 1; AGU March 14; DPS on April 1.
If you know of other prizes, please edit!
From Kelsi: One of the focuses of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) is on helping female scientist achieve recognition. You can see their resources here, and a fact sheet for some other scientific disciplines. (Note they are redoing their website, so some resources are “coming soon” :).
New Article in EOS – Women Count by Dr. Dana Hurley
Resources for Parents at the 2014 DPS Meeting in Tuscon
Hi All,
Just a heads up that a mother’s room will be available for those who might need it – ask at the registration desk for details. Majd Mayyasi also did some research on the “Kids Club” babysitting service at the meeting venue. Here is the info:
It’s a local day care service for children ages 4-12 yrs. $45 for half a day/child, $75 for the full day/child. They have no minimum-number-of-children requirement, but DO require that:
2- the time be reserved 24 hours in advance. This can be done by calling in to the main resort number (520-792-3500) and the front desk will then transfer the caller.
Tell us what you think: New blog content
Dear WiPS readers,
On the WiPS blog, we do a lot to advertise new positions, profile great women, and discuss how we (sometimes struggle to) work as women in a field that is male-dominated at senior levels. A lot of what we post is very serious stuff, and although it’s critically important to discuss those issues, perhaps we could introduce some new, practical content; specifically, things that could be seen as more day-to-day, “lifestyle” topics for women. A series of starter posts might look like:
- Traveling Light: Planning outfits for week-long trips
- Traveling Light: Carry-ons, toiletries, and the TSA
- Traveling in Comfort: Tips for long-haul flights
- Traveling in Style: The woman’s computer bag/purse
- Style: Dressing for the workplace in planetary science
- Style: Dressing for interviews and talks in planetary science
- Style: Dressing for different professional meetings in planetary science
As women, many of us carry purses, wear makeup, enjoy clothes & shoes, etc., and these aspects of our lives intersect our careers on a daily basis and differentiate us from men. The readership of this blog is broad, and these topics may not appeal to everyone, but many readers are “early career” and might have questions or benefit from some of the knowledge that those of us who’ve been doing this for a while have developed.
Please comment below and let us know if this kind of content is of interest to you. Feel free to suggest topics, too! These posts will strongly encourage feedback from the readership as to what are your favorite tips and tricks or follow-on questions, and hopefully that will lead to content for an ongoing series of posts.
Dr. Lori Glaze: It’s the science that gets me up in the morning!
Interview conducted by Dr. Lynnae Quick
Dr. Lori Glaze is the Deputy Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research interests include physical processes in terrestrial and planetary volcanology, atmospheric transport and diffusion processes, and geologic mass movements. Her work focuses on data analysis and theoretical modeling of surface processes on all the terrestrial solar system bodies, particularly the Earth, Venus, Mars, Moon, and Io. She develops statistical, analytical, and data management methods in support of physical process modeling and develops applications of diverse sets of terrestrial and planetary remote sensing data.
Recent Publications:
Glaze, L.S., Baloga, S.M., Fagents, S.A., and Wright, R., 2014. The Influence of Slope Breaks on Lava Flow Surface Disruption. Journal of Geophysical Research: Sold Earth 119, 1837-1850.
Glaze L. S., and S. M. Baloga. 2013. Simulation of inflated pahoehoe lava flows. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. [10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2013.01.018]
1. How did you first become interested in planetary science?
I was always interested in space but never really considered planetary science as a career until I was in my early 20’s. I had received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Physics, and had worked with Steve Self during my Master’s degree on modeling of physical volcanic processes. I was drawn to volcanoes ever since I went to the Pompeii AD79 traveling exhibit as a teenager in 1979. I was also living in Seattle when Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980. I was really intrigued by that eruption. During my Master’s degree, I had the opportunity to work with Peter Francis. I learned a great deal about remote sensing from Peter. Peter was very interested in planetary science and was probably my first real introduction to planetary science. Anyway, after my Master’s degree, I had an opportunity to go to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to work on an Earth based remote sensing volcano orbiter mission concept. While I was at JPL, I began working with Steve Baloga on several planetary volcanic modeling studies. I was also introduced to Lionel Wilson, world-renowned planetary scientist. After a year at JPL, I decided to do a PhD with Lionel at Lancaster University. By the time I completed my PhD, I was hooked on planetary volcanology. I still do some terrestrial work, but planetary science is incredibly exciting with new missions and data where we’re learning new things all the time.
Women’s Confidence is Tied to Success
Evidence shows that women are less self-assured than men—and that to succeed, confidence matters as much as competence. Here’s why, and what to do about it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/the-confidence-gap/359815/
DPS WIPS Lunch 2014! – Register by October 15th
Join us…
for an informal meeting and discussion hour over lunch on Tuesday, November 11th from 12:00-1:30. This year’s topics will revolve around the ideas of powerful communication and how to be an ally to minority community members. We will have presentation material interspersed with plenty of discussion time. Please feel free to bring any information/announcements related to women in astronomy and planetary science to share.
Thanks to the generosity of the DPS committee, we will be able to provide lunch this year. All are welcome(!), but pre-registration at http://bit.ly/DPS_WIPS_2014 is required due to space limitations. Please try to register before October 15th so we can accurately place the lunch order (we will get a few extras, but lunch is not guaranteed after that point).
- This year’s organizers are Sondy Springmann, Maggie McAdams, and Kelsi Singer (from afar – sadly I won’t be attending this year).
We will also continue this year with our “bring a guest” theme – Invite a friend or colleague who has never been to a WIPS lunch but might be interested to come with you as your guest. We are hoping this will make a wider crowd feel welcome attending. Most of the topics we discuss are of a general professional development nature, but of course we also have a focus on supporting female scientists. As always, you don’t have to be a female scientist to support female scientists :). (Please have them RSVP as well though, so we know to order them a lunch!)
SESE Planetary Science Faculty search
Assistant Professor (JOB #10878)
Arizona State University
School of Earth and Space Exploration
The School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) at Arizona State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Planetary Science to begin August 2015. Preference will be given to candidates whose research focus is on Solar System planetary science, and who have research strengths that complement or extend those of current SESE faculty (http://sese.asu.edu/people_faculty).
Nicolle Zellner
azalucha
barbylon
baryonic
elakdawalla
Emilie Royer
Erin
geochemom
interplanetsarah
Jordan M Bretzfelder
Kat Gardner-Vandy
Kelsi Singer
lostrack621
lovenstars
ryannwatkins
sandrift
squawky
Susan Niebur
