Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

The role of citizenship in geosciences

Sujania Talavera-Soza October 11, 2023

My collection of passport stamps - from hjl at https://www.flickr.com/photos/hjl/101443399

When international scientists from countries with a very low gross domestic product (GDP) get together at the proverbial water-cooler, we don’t talk about the weather, we talk about immigration. The conversation topics can vary between navigating a new immigration system due to an upcoming move, issues with our institution’s international office or wondering whether we will be able to secure a tra ...[Read More]

What is the Imposter Phenomenon and what can we do about it?

Franziska Keller April 6, 2022

Picture taken from Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/klare-gluhbirne-auf-tafel-platziert-355952/

“What am I doing here?”, “Am I really good enough for this job?”, or “I was lucky this time” are thoughts that have probably crossed the minds of most of the readers here at least at some point in their careers. Even though a healthy level of self-doubt is normal for everyone, these thoughts and especially the feeling of being a fraud, can be signs of the so called imposter “syndrome”. It is estim ...[Read More]

Challenging racism in the geosciences

Franziska Keller January 13, 2022

Featured image from pexels.com (https://www.pexels.com/search/racism/)

The hard truth is, that the geosciences are among the least diverse disciplines in the wide fields of the natural sciences. When we look at the time span from 1973 to 2016, we find that 14,246 PhD degrees were given to white men, while “only” ~5234 were earned by white women in the US. These numbers are already quite shocking, but I promise you it will even get worse: a total of only 163 PhD degre ...[Read More]

Exploring parachute science in analytical geoscience

Elliot Carter December 1, 2021

Crater lakes, Kelimutu Volcano, Indonesia. Credit: Danielle Su (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

During this past October, a team of researchers took part in a “hackathon” organised by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to generate data and new ideas to increase diversity in geoscience. This was an extremely hectic, sometimes stressful but fun and illuminating experience which ultimately culminated in a pilot funding bid (which we learned this week has been successful!). Our i ...[Read More]