In the landscape of very competitive scientific funding, and with STEM research teams sometimes having more people with the name ‘Ben’ than women, Pierre asks what no one dares to even think: Can I increase the chances for my proposal getting funded if I co-write it with a woman? Dear Pierre, The funding game is one of low-odds and it seems you are looking for a loophole. No judgement ...[Read More]
The number of women in science and academia drops with each career step in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM fields). This systematic under-representation of women towards the top of the academic career path is called the “leaky pipeline”. In Germany about 50% of the students in mathematics and natural sciences are women, but there are only 20% of fem ...[Read More]
11 years on from the infamous eruption and ash cloud that shut down the European airspace, there are parallels between current travel restrictions and another Icelandic eruption that’s currently in the news. 11 years ago the now infamous eruption of Eyjafjallajökull occurred. I remember that one, the ash cloud, right? Yes, that’s the one. The one that was all over the news, with stunning images of ...[Read More]
Today we know the Earth as a tectonically busy planet, shaped by mantle convection and plate tectonics. But this is nothing compared to the earlier phases of planetary evolution. This week, Fabio Capitanio (ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor at the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, Australia) takes us on a modelling tour back to a time when the Earth’s tecton ...[Read More]
The largest earthquake during the second month of 2021 occurred on February 10th in the western Pacific, specifically to the southeast of the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia, a seismically active region due to the convergence between the Australian Plate subducting beneath the Pacific Plate (Figure 1). This earthquake (Mw 7.7) was preceded by at least three foreshocks earthquakes M>5.5, which ...[Read More]
Transport networks are crucial to our lives, from commuting to work to reach health care facilities, from the transport of goods to leisure travelling. To quote Robin Chase, an American transport entrepreneur: “Transportation is […] the glue of our daily lives. When it goes well, we don’t see it. When it goes wrong, it negatively colours our day, makes us feel angry and impotent, curta ...[Read More]
My dog, Roxanne (Roxy for short), has been by my side for my entire graduate career. I adopted Roxy before starting a two-year Master’s program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She moved with me to the University of Maryland for my PhD program. Now in the second year of my PhD, I cannot imagine PhD life without her. Roxy has helped me navigate the most challenging aspects of academi ...[Read More]
It has been a busy few months here in Calgary. Obviously, fieldwork slows in the winter due to the amount of snow on the ground (and temperatures down to -40 degrees with wind chill factored in) but there are lots of other activities on the go. One of the joys of being a consultant is having the flexibility to take on a wide variety of small projects. Virtual Presentations I have found that giving ...[Read More]
In February 2021, two major Saharan dust events hit Europe. Because of the prevailing weather conditions in the first and last week of February, several million tons of Saharan dust blanketed the skies from the Mediterranean Sea all the way to Scandinavia. The sandy sky was observed almost everywhere in Europe (Fig. 1). Moreover, the stained cars and windows indicated the dust deposition (Fig. 2 – ...[Read More]
