Where are they now? 2020

•  NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reached Pluto and sent back high-resolution images of the dwarf planet and its moon, Charon.

• Scientists explore gene editing using CRISPR-Cas9.

• A new species of human ancestor, Homo naledi, was found in Johannesburg, South Africa.

• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finds evidence of flowing water from melting ice on the red planet.

• The Dawn mission investigates dwarf planet, Ceres.

Currently, I am a lecturer (assistant professor) at the University of St Andrews (personal website). Unveiling the fascinating physics of the climate system to the next generation of earth scientists is the highlight of my job. Living on the beautiful east coast of Scotland with my wife and 18-month old twins is pretty good too!

Currently, I study hurricanes and supercells on Earth, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. What I like best about the work is leading a group of creative, hardworking students who have amazing ideas and figure out things that I never would have reached on my own.

Currently: I work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps); I fly aircraft in support of NOAA’s various scientific, emergency response and disaster relief missions throughout the U.S. and neighboring international partners. Two things I love about my work are the flying, and supporting science in the field in many remote locations such as observing microbiota 250 miles off-shore in the Arctic, surveying megafauna of the Aleutian Islands, and measuring soil moisture in the Adirondacks, among others.

Currently: I am now a CNRS Research Scientist at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. I have started a small research group studying the way the Earth’s crust deforms in and around fault zones, and how this deformation interacts with other geological processes such as erosion, magmatism or hydrothermal circulation.

Our work is mostly theoretical, but we do get a chance to go out to sea or in the field to look at real faults from time to time. I enjoy designing physical models that help us understand geological structures and the shape of Earth’s active landscapes. Teaching geodynamics with analog models that involve gelatin, springs, or corn syrup is also a fun part of the job.

• NASA concluded that 2010 will be the hottest year on record.

• Bioengineers create the first self-replicating, synthetically designed life with yeast.

• The LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission found tons of water on the moon.

• Researchers can recreate an embryo with genetic material from three parents.

• Astronomers get first peek at atmosphere of a “Super-Earth” exoplanet.

Currently, I’m a postdoc at Northern Arizona University studying the properties (mineralogy/thermophysics) of the Martian crust. I love the variety of projects this can encompass from mapping on high resolution images, working with the Curiosity rover, and running thermophysical models. I also do a lot of outreach related to space science and during the quarantine, I am doing “house calls from outer space” for science-inclined kids stuck at home.

Currently, I’m an Associate Professor, University at Albany. What I like best about the work is the change to think deeply about how the earth system works, and train the next generation to continue that work.

Currently, I’m a Research Scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. What I like best about the work is being able to apply my MIT climate science education on important problems in an intellectually stimulating and collaborative and supporting environment.

Currently, I’m a consulting CTO to startups and Fortune 500s providing guidance on software architecture and team leadership. In my free time I mentor budding startups at MassChallenge and Techstars and am also training to become a Pararescue Jumper (PJ) in the Air National Guard. I love helping passionate founding and executive teams adopt cutting edge technology and best practices around servant leadership in order to empower their team and customers.

Currently, I am working with other scientist colleagues in India and Saudi Arabia on a startup to provide environment and energy services in India. Most of the meteorological and environmental services in this part of the world have been traditionally by the govt bodies. As the specialization and varieties of the information and services needed are complex, it is realized that the govt cannot provide such services at scale. Some examples of the services include forecasting flash floods, heat stress, and pollution in different cities; and providing extreme weather forecasts for commercial farmers (eg, grapes). My comprehensive preparation in Atmospheric Science in EAPS, and the training to pursue the difficult avenues that others do not want to, are very handy.

I am also involved in community work due to Covid-19, and the number of cases are on a rise here.

What do I like about this work? The enthusiasm of the new students and youth who want to work on these lines, and the growing interest of other scientists in such extension activity is very encouraging. I like the growing awareness of sustainability and resilience to climate change in the society at different levels, and their willingness to incorporate the appropriate solutions.

Currently, I’m a freelance nature and travel writer based in northernmost British Columbia. I love the freedom and creativity of this work, the way it lets me draw on science but also philosophy, poetry, and lived experience in order to ask questions of life, the universe, and everything.

What was Happening in 1995?

• Project Phoenix begins looking for extraterrestrial transmissions using the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.

• Comet Hale–Bopp is discovered by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp independently.

• 51 Pegasi b: Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor of the University of Geneva at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence announce the first definitive detection of an extrasolar planet orbiting an ordinary main sequence star (51 Pegasi) and the first “hot Jupiter”.

• Richard P. Binzel devizes the original of what will become the Torino Scale for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects.

• The first brown dwarf – Teide 1 – is discovered.

• Bruce Luyendyk first proposes the name Zealandia for a southern continent.

• The genome of Haemophilus influenzae is the first genome of a free living organism to be sequenced.

Currently, I teach in the Terrascope first-year learning community here at MIT (terrascope.mit.edu). If Building 18 weren’t in the way, I’d be able to see the window of my graduate-school office from the window of my current office, so I certainly have the lowest average velocity since graduation of anyone in my year of the Joint Program! The best part is probably working with our wonderful students in a setting that encourages educational innovation and exploration.

Currently, I’m currently a professor at School of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Seoul National University (number one university of Korea). In 2006, during a geological field trip in California, the van that I was driving rolled over. I became quadriplegic (completely paralyzed neck down). However life has unexpected twist and turns. As a result of my accident, I became very famous in Korea. I am the new face of disability (that is, someone who uses technology to overcome disability). The public recognition brought me power to change and I have used it to not only raise awareness on disability issues in Korea (particularly in the education of people with disability) but also to direct the future of Korean marine scientific research in big way. (NOVA interview)

Currently I am the Chair of InterRidge (international organization to promote mid-ocean ridge studies) and the Project Manager of PLANET A whose objective is to construct global data hub in Earth sciences and apply modern tools such as artificial intelligence algorithms to deduce new information.

Currently, SVP and Director of Quantitative Fixed Income Research at The Travelers Companies Inc.  Like best: research financial market anomalies and working with young associate analysts.

Currently, NASA Headquarters, running Discovery Program. Best part: Helping pick the next missions to explore our solar system! Spent better part of previous two decades working in polar Earth sciences at NSF and NASA (featured on NASA Explorers: Cryosphere – The Big Thaw). Occasional consulting as a futurist for movies and TV, most recently the movie Hotel Artemis and season 6 of the television show The Affair.

What was Happening in 1990?

• The Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth is sent back from the Voyager 1 probe after completing its primary mission, from around 3.5 billion miles away.

• The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

• “Sue”, the best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found, is discovered in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson.

• Gamma ray burst GRB 090423 is detected, coming from the most distant known astronomical object of any kind at this time.

• Japan launches the Hiten spacecraft, the first lunar probe launched by a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States.

• Earth-grazing meteoroid of 13 October 1990: A 44 kilogram, 41.5 km/s meteoroid passes above Czechoslovakia and Poland at 97.9 km. It is the first time calculations of the orbit of such a body based on photographic records from two distant places are made.

Currently, I am Professor for Dynamical Meteorology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.

Currently, I am a professor in science education/teacher education at Michigan State University. It’s wonderful! I get to work with teachers and students from preschool through college in learning and teaching about science (including a free 8th grade astronomy/space science unit I helped to co-design that will be release by OpenSciEd). I have great memories of EAPS.

Currently, I am currently a full professor at the University of Tennessee in Earth and Planetary Sciences.  I continue my love of sedimentary rocks, and split my research time three ways: working to undersatnd fabrics and diagenesis of Proterozoic carbonate rocks; trying to understand the formation of early (microfossil bearing) diagenetic chert; and exploring the habitability of Mars as a co-I on both the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) and Mars 2020 (Perseverence Rover) missions. It used to be the field work I loved the best. As I get older, I continue to love the field work, but miss the time away from my family. Nowadays, the best thing is simply watching the growth and success of my graduate and undergraduate students.

What was Happening in 1970?

•  Voyager I and Voyager II, unmanned expeditions, reached several of the outer planets in the solar system.

• Japan becomes the fourth country to launch a satellite into orbit.

• The Apollo 13 ill-fated space mission launches and returns to Earth.

• Venera 7 is launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from another planet.

• The 7.1 Mw  Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000–14,621 are killed and 26,783 injured.

Currently: I am retired. My current interests include surfing, biking, camping, photography, our (5) grandkids and maintaining our rental properties.

Currently: Retired from USGS, Coastal and Marine Programs as a senior scientist. I remain a scientist emeritus there. I was team chief from 1987-1992 in the Branch of Pacific Marine Geology, Menlo Park, CA. My position as a research scientist involved field studies of sediment transport in the world’s oceans. I was chief scientist on over 20 research cruises on various ships, including studies in the Mediterranean Sea, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans. I developed specialized bottom systems (e.g., GEOPROBE tripods) for obtaining long-term measurements of bottom currents, suspended sediment concentrations, and seabed changes.

Companies: West coast Director of Woods Hole Group. I now have an environmental consulting company: CME (Coastal & Marine Environments) in Vancouver, WA.