Hello Delphine! Thank you for agreeing to have this GeoTalk interview. Could you briefly introduce yourself and your background? Hello, and thank you for having me! My name is Delphine Urbah, and I am a French professional working at the intersection of space, policy, ethics, and the human dimensions of space exploration. I currently work as a project manager for the Académie Spatiale Île-de-Franc ...[Read More]
We cannot solve the world’s most complex problems, from climate change to curing disease, if scientists must leave parts of themselves at the laboratory door. This is a reality that we must acknowledge in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The demand for conformity, the fear of judgment, and the reality of discrimination act as invisible barriers that can limit innovat ...[Read More]
Hello Lorne – welcome to GeoTalk! Could you introduce yourself and your background to our readers? I’m Dr. Lorne Farovitch, a deaf transdisciplinary biomedical researcher and multilingual signer, fluent in more than five sign languages. I’m passionate about advancing health equity for deaf communities worldwide through community-driven research! As the founder and Executive Director of the Global ...[Read More]
Imagine this: you are at work, casually discussing your weekend plans with colleagues. One is planning a hike with her husband. Another jokes about meeting his girlfriend’s parents for dinner, nerves barely concealed. Then you mention a date night with your partner. The conversation halts. The atmosphere becomes taut. One of your colleagues makes a swift exit. Later that day, your boss calls you i ...[Read More]
The Earth and space sciences, like many STEM fields, have long been dominated by a narrow vision of who belongs. But the tide is turning. A 2023 workplace climate survey of Earth and space scientists highlights both the persistent barriers queer and other historically excluded scientists face and the urgent need for cultural shifts within the discipline. The data is clear: the geosciences must now ...[Read More]
The world we live in today has innumerably more career options than our parents and their parents did. But women and young girls continue to be a minority when it comes to careers in science. Experts call this the “STEM Gap”, where STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. According to a UNESCO report, women still only make up 28% of the STEM workforce. Two of the leading r ...[Read More]
“Who are these men?!” he says, seeming genuinely baffled. I feel my shoulders rise towards my ears with tension as I wait for him to continue. The man is summarizing what his group, comprised solely of men, have arrived at during their group-discussion at the gender equality seminar we are taking. We have been presented with, I might say, “the usual” statistics for academic women. A pr ...[Read More]
Around the world, the month of October is observed as Black History Month and includes the International Day for Disaster Reduction. While both these observances are significant in their own right, it gave EGU the opportunity to hear from geoscientists of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities about the many ways that race and natural hazards are linked: does one affect the ot ...[Read More]
Working from home during the pandemic has allowed many of us to look back on past experiences and to long for the days when our work in marine science took us to amazing places all around the world. Pride month is another great opportunity for reflection and to consider how things have changed for us as LGBTQI+ individuals and the community within STEM, including, on the International Day of the S ...[Read More]
In autumn 2018, the EGU Council established a working group whose aim is to promote and support equality, diversity, and inclusion in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences, with a focus on EGU activities. The group works closely with EGU’s Council and Committees to improve EGU’s equality, diversity and inclusion as an organisation. Since the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group ...[Read More]