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SummaryIn a region of complex geology, we examine the influence of spatial resolution of conductivity models on Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GICs) estimations. We focus on the southern region of Portugal mainland, for which magnetotelluric (MT) sounding measurements have been obtained with lower noise from human activity. Using two conductivity models inverted from sets of MT soundings with different sampling distance, we look for an interpretation of the differences in GIC estimations at substation grounding resistances. We make use of two different proxies, the Local Effective Field (LEF) and the Regional Electromotive Source (RES), built from the electric induced field at each substation site and the sum of electromotive forces along all transmission lines connected to that substation, respectively. We compare different time signals associated to GICs using a parameter that combines Pearson correlation and linear regression slope, the Correlation Regression Coefficient (CRC). Our main conclusion is that spatially detailed information on lateral heterogeneities of the conductivity associated to complex geology is crucial for a rigorous assessment of GIC hazard, leading to relative differences in GIC standard deviation and in GIC peak values that can amount to more than 100% in certain cases. Additionally, using LEF and RES, we emphasise the non-locality of GIC drivers and bring new input concerning the choice of proxies used to monitor and forecast this kind of hazard.

SummaryThe Scandinavian Peninsula and its vicinity comprise highly tectonically diverse blocks, including the Baltic Shield, the continental margin, and the North Sea Basin. The crustal rheology is a critical constraint to understanding the tectonic evolution in this region. Based on 19 416 Lg waveforms from 233 earthquakes and 560 broadband digital stations, using an inversion method combining both single- and two-station ray paths, we constructed a broadband (0.05 and 10.0 Hz) Lg wave attenuation model in the study region, with the resolution approaches to 110 km (∼1°) or higher in areas with dense ray path coverages. The QLg distributions correlate well with regional geological features. The Baltic Shield exhibits the highest QLg, consistent with its thick Precambrian crust and high rheological rigidity developed through Archean Svecofennian orogeny. In contrast, passive margins with crustal thinning, magmatic modification, and thick sedimentary sequences exhibit strong attenuation, reflecting a reduction in rheological strength resulting from interactions with mantle plumes and extensional tectonics. The North Sea Basin exhibits the lowest QLg values and the presence of hydrocarbon-bearing sediments. The extremely high QLg distribution reveals the ancient cratonic core of the Baltic Shield, particularly in areas where the surface rock dating sample cannot be collected due to seawater coverage.

SummaryWe analysed infrasound waves associated with the Gyeongju earthquake (ML 5.8) that occurred on September 12, 2016, in the southeastern Korean Peninsula. For infrasound wave detection, the Progressive Multi-channel Correlation method was applied to the infrasound dataset recorded at 7 arrays operating in South Korea at epicentral distances ranging from 178 to 472 km. Based on the back-projection method constrained by array-dependent celerity and azimuth deviation models, the source regions were identified in both the epicentral and nonepicentral regions. Remarkably, the nonepicentral secondary sources of this earthquake were located in regions with shallow water depths: i) the western coastal area in the Yellow Sea and ii) the shallow ocean basin and bank in the East Sea. The location results obtained from the earthquake could be corroborated through its foreshock (ML 5.1), yielding location results consistent with those of the mainshock. The generation of infrasound waves over shallow water depths was fortuitously validated by direct recordings of dominant single-frequency (∼0.3 Hz) infrasound waves at close range via temporary sensors near the ocean basin and bank. We interpreted that low-frequency infrasound signals could be generated from interactions among the ocean floor, shallow seawater, and atmosphere. We performed numerical simulations of seismoacoustic fields to predict ground motions on the seafloor and acoustic transmission efficiency between the water and air interface. The simulations quantified the energy transfer through different media and clarified our observational results. We found that because this solid Earth‒water‒atmosphere coupled air wave has a relatively low frequency (∼0.3 Hz), it can survive propagation over long distances compared with high-frequency infrasound waves generated in inland and mountain regions. In this study, we extend our understanding of water‒atmosphere coupling and the monitoring framework for earthquake-associated nonepicentral infrasound waves, encompassing not only inland ground shaking but also shallow sea regions located far from the epicentre.

A lot of attention has been paid to how climate change can drive biodiversity loss. Now, MIT researchers have shown that the reverse is also true: Reductions in biodiversity can jeopardize one of Earth's most powerful levers for mitigating climate change.

The findings are important because methane is over 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Arctic lakes are already major natural methane sources globally, but the processes that control how methane is produced and released from lake sediments have remained poorly understood—until now.

Wetlands are among the most efficient ecosystems for carbon sequestration, storing more than 30% of global soil carbon in only 3%–13% of Earth's land surface. However, the spatiotemporal patterns of wetland carbon uptake and their role in regulating global land carbon sink dynamics have been poorly quantified.

Though scientists have long understood how lightning strikes, the precise atmospheric events that trigger it within thunderclouds have remained a perplexing mystery. The mystery may now be solved, thanks to a team of researchers led by Victor Pasko, professor of electrical engineering in the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, that has revealed the powerful chain reaction that triggers lightning.

Though winds may shift, science perseveres. And so do scientists. Whether change pushes them in new directions or strengthens their resolve, scientists find ways to keep doing important work.

The stories that follow highlight the journeys of scientists who have been blown off course, let the winds carry them, and stood tall in the breeze.

When, from the age of 11, one scientist knew she wanted to drive rovers on Mars, she made it happen.

When a young man saw his Narragansett community’s concerns about the degradation of local landscapes and waters, that—along with his family’s Traditional Knowledges—set him on the path to becoming a soil conservationist.

Cassius Spears Jr.: Conserving the Living Soil Jeff Massey: Atmospheric Science Meets the Private Sector Kate Mulvaney: Bringing Human Dimensions to Water Resources Lucia Perez Diaz: Expressing Earth with Art Phoebe Lam: Embracing the Ocean’s Complexities Stacey Hitchcock: From Fearing Storms to Seeking Them Susanne Maciel: Marrying Mathematics and Geology Wendy Bohon: Quelling Fears and Sparking Geoscience Joy Jess Phoenix: Curiosity Unfettered Tanya Harrison: Roving on Mars Alex Teachey: Elevating Astronomy with the Arts

When an earthquake shook an aspiring actress’s world (and her apartment), she enthusiastically asked how he could help.

When an atmospheric scientist pushed through her childhood fear of storms, she found a career studying extreme weather.

Along the way, all of the scientists profiled here connected communities, made discoveries, and had some wild adventures. May their inspiring stories help you weather whatever comes your way.

—The Editors

Citation: Editors (2025), Winds of change, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250267. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

The Career Issue

Each year, we take a moment to appreciate the varied careers Earth and space scientists have forged. Their stories of determination, taking chances, and finding success are always inspiring.

This year’s cohort doesn’t disappoint.

In this issue we learn about 12 scientists who navigated their fields and found rewarding careers. Sometimes their plans went awry, or opportunities arose, or they found renewed purpose after taking a hard look at their priorities and interests. For Jess Phoenix, that meant running for Congress. For Lucia Perez Dias, it was illustrating a book. Alex Teachey left the theater to study physics.

Some of the scientists profiled here knew where they wanted to go, and they worked hard to get there. After hearing tribe members’ concerns about their land, a teenage Cassius Spears decided to study conservation. As a child, Tanya Harrison wanted to work with Mars rovers; as an adult, she did it.

Navigating a career has been even more challenging for some scientists this year amid drastic funding cuts, mass layoffs, and uncertainty due to shifting political priorities in the United States. These uncertainties put early-career researchers especially at risk, but senior scientists are positioned to influence institutional actions and mobilize in support of their more vulnerable colleagues, says Mark Moldwin in an opinion.

We hope you find these stories as uplifting as we do.

—Jennifer Schmidt, Managing Editor

Citation: Schmidt, J. (2025), Where the wind blows, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250268. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Lucia Perez Diaz always needed a creative outlet. She studied music from an early age and played the piano through her teens. She was always the one to be scolded for doodling in class.

Wary that the hustle required by a professional career in music might be challenging and inspired by an influential Earth systems teacher, Perez Diaz chose a geology degree over a music degree when attending the Universidad de Oviedo in Spain. She then completed a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geodynamics at Royal Holloway, University of London, investigating the geologic formation and evolution of the South Atlantic Ocean.

But Perez Diaz never let go of her creative side. After years of producing intricate illustrations for her own presentations, a pandemic-era refocusing spurred her to grow her illustration business. Now she’s a published children’s book author: Her first book, How the Earth Works, hit the shelves earlier this year.

Perez Diaz’s artwork includes a geosciences poster series. Credit: Lucia Perez Diaz

“Science is full of inspiring stories,” she said. “Art is a really great vehicle to tell them.”

Perez Diaz also works as a computational geodynamicist at Halliburton. Learning to program didn’t feel natural to Perez Diaz initially, and she required a lot of support from her peers. But the fact that she eventually succeeded and built a career using those skills motivated her to take on new, unfamiliar projects—like book publishing—with zeal.

“It’s rarely about having all the skills—it’s more about giving ourselves space to learn and time to get there.”

“People often ask me, ‘How did you manage to make a book?’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Honestly, because I thought, What’s the worst that could happen?’”

She hopes to use what she’s learned to help others explore their own creativity. She hosts workshops to show aspiring illustrators that creating art isn’t as daunting as it may seem. “Often we look at others’ achievements and they make us feel like we don’t have their talent or their skills,” she said. “It’s rarely about having all the skills—it’s more about giving ourselves space to learn and time to get there.”

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2025), Lucia Perez Diaz: Expressing Earth with art, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250261. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Phoebe Lam’s science career started when she looked up at the stars. Her father, a theoretical physicist, explained the movements of Earth, the Moon, and planets, and Lam developed an appreciation for the natural world.

Today Lam works below the stars as a marine geochemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying the role particles play in the cycling of carbon, iron, and other elements in the ocean.

Early on, it was hard for Lam to fit her love for nature into the confines of a scientific discipline. As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she enjoyed all her classes—calculus, physics, chemistry, biology—almost equally.

“I realized I like the messiness of the real world.”

Lam saw her peers joining research labs and did the same. She dove into oceanographic work with scientists at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. An adviser predicted that Lam would be a “great generalist someday,” Lam said. “I wasn’t super focused—I was trying little things there, little things here. I think that still characterizes my brain.”

Drawn to work that integrated different disciplines, she joined an oceanography lab at Princeton University to study the trace metal requirements of phytoplankton.But dealing only with tightly controlled variables felt limiting. “I realized I like the messiness of the real world,” she said.

Frustrated, Lam joined the world of environmental policy—a “rebound relationship,” she said. While enrolled in a policy-focused master’s program, she took a class on carbon cycles, and found her way back to oceanography, eventually earning a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

The twists and turns of Lam’s academic journey “made me understand…that there are a lot of ways to do science,” she said. She counsels prospective undergraduate and graduate students to think about how they might feel satisfied by their research.

For Lam, that satisfaction comes from putting together the complex puzzle of the ocean’s chemistry—from knowing there are so many different questions she can ask of the ocean.

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2025), Phoebe Lam: Embracing the ocean’s complexities, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250262. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Stacey Hitchcock remembers being terrified of storms as a child. (It didn’t help that her neighbor’s house was struck by lightning three times.) But today she is an atmospheric scientist studying extreme weather at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Hitchcock’s younger self conquered her fears of the weather by asking lots of questions. “I remember at some point asking my dad to explain radar to me,” she said.

Hitchcock first learned that studying the weather could be a profession when she took a tour of a university in Indiana while visiting to play in a tennis tournament. “I didn’t know it was a career,” she said.

As an undergraduate, Hitchcock helped with research on climate and snow. But extreme weather was always her passion. “I kept coming back to storms,” she said. And she pushed on when she encountered adversity. Some of her classmates said she wouldn’t make it professionally as an atmospheric scientist, but Hitchcock knew she was doing good work.

“If you feel like you’re succeeding, don’t let naysayers tell you that you’re not.”

“If you feel like you’re succeeding, don’t let naysayers tell you that you’re not,” she said. “That’s advice that I try to give to students.”

Hitchcock uses both observations and simulations in her research. She is working to better understand the structure of storms that produce intense rainfall and the challenges of forecasting multiple storms that occur in close succession. She credits her wide-ranging research interests to her willingness to try out projects and develop new collaborations.

“A lot of the best things that have happened to me in my career happened because I had an interesting opportunity and I said yes,” she said.

For instance, Hitchcock spent 4.5 years in Australia as a postdoctoral researcher.

The professional connections she made abroad led to investigations of how turbulence in the atmosphere caused by storms translates into bumpy flights. Hitchcock is still involved in that field.

It’s a somewhat fitting line of work, Hitchcock admits, because she used to be a queasy flyer.

—Katherine Kornei (@KatherineKornei), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Kornei, K. (2025), Stacey Hitchcock: From fearing storms to seeking them, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250263. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Like many young waitresses in Los Angeles, Wendy Bohon once dreamed of an acting career—that is, until the 1999 magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake shook up her plans (and her fourth-floor apartment).

“My surfboard fell on my head,” Bohon recalled. “I was like, ‘This is amazing.’”

The next day, she showed up at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Pasadena and asked to volunteer. They said no, but she persisted.

Eventually, Bohon helped design a public lecture series about earthquake science, which led to a job at the Pasadena office doing outreach and education.

Two decades later, she’s the branch chief for seismic hazards and earthquake engineering at the California Geological Survey, where she manages scientists who help keep people safe from earthquake hazards.

Tens of thousands of people know of Bohon for something else: science communication. Through social media, talks, and more, she shares the joy of understanding our planet with audiences that otherwise might never have taken a second look at a rock.

During grad school, Bohon experimented with how best to share science online. After earning her Ph.D. in geology in 2014, she managed communications for organizations such as Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS; now part of EarthScope) and NASA Goddard and even started her own science communication company. Outreach isn’t part of her current job, but she continues doing it in her free time.

“I care a lot about people, and I have anxiety,” Bohon said. “I know that earthquakes induce a lot of anxiety in people.”

Quelling anxiety isn’t her only goal. She also wants to inspire. Among other pursuits, she’s an ambassador for IF/THEN, an initiative that highlights women role models in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Bohon wants aspiring scientists to know that there’s a “whole ecosystem of science careers.” She especially dislikes the “leaky pipeline” metaphor that people use to describe the tendency of women to leave academia at higher rates than men, especially after becoming parents.

“You’re not lost. You’re just taking a different path, and your science knowledge goes with you wherever you go.”

Bohon was 7 months pregnant when she defended her Ph.D. And after taking a hard look at what an academic career would mean for her family, she decided it wasn’t for her. So she took her expertise and infectious enthusiasm elsewhere.

“They’re implying that if you don’t follow this very narrow path, that you’re leaking out, that you’re lost,” Bohon said. “You’re not lost. You’re just taking a different path, and your science knowledge goes with you wherever you go.”

—Elise Cutts (@elisecutts), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cutts, E. (2025), Wendy Bohon: Quelling fears and sparking geoscience joy, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250266. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

When NASA deployed a small six-wheeled robot named Sojourner on Mars in 1997, space-obsessed 11-year-old Tanya Harrison was watching.

“When NASA released the little animated GIF of Sojourner driving onto the surface, I thought, ‘I want to work on Mars rovers,’” she said. “I was laser focused on that goal from there out.”

A bad experience getting a master’s degree soured her on academia. To keep connected to the world of research, she looked for jobs that used her data analysis skills.

“I started emailing people who had written the papers that I read for my [master’s] thesis and saying, ‘Hey, do you need somebody to crunch data for you?’” Harrison said. Those emails led to a job at Malin Space Science Systems, which gave her experience operating cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But she realized she wanted more, which meant going back for a Ph.D. in geology and planetary science.

With doctorate in hand, Harrison fulfilled her dream of being directly involved with the Opportunity rover, along with planning the Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions. “I was on the teams advocating for both Gale and Jezero [craters], so we went to all the places that I was hoping we would go!” she said.

Meanwhile, she made a splash posting about her life as a scientist on Twitter (now X), which led to the media’s seeking her out as an expert on all things Martian. “It hit me that I could make a bigger difference by inhabiting that role in the community than if I were just a scientist,” she said.

“My underlying goal is really to get all pieces of the larger space sector working together and bene-fiting each other.”

Today Harrison works as an independent consultant for space companies based in her native Canada. She served on AGU’s Board of Directors and still works on its Finance Committee. Her current life means less Mars work but more essential Earth observation research focused on climate change.

“My underlying goal is really to get all pieces of the larger space sector working together and benefiting each other,” she said, referring to academia, government, and private industry. “Forty percent of the Canadian landmass is in the Arctic, so we have a vested interest in being a leader in climate research.”

—Matthew R. Francis (@BowlerHatScience.org), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Francis, M. R. (2025), Tanya Harrison: Roving on Mars, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250265. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Susanne Maciel’s path into geophysics was not straight.

After finishing high school, Maciel was drawn to math because of a description she read in a Universidade de Brasília (UnB) student guide. “It was so beautiful,” she recalled. “It said math is, at the same time, a philosophy, a science, and an art.”

As she advanced toward her bachelor’s degree, the description proved true. “But I wanted to solve real-life problems, to go somewhere I could apply all I had learnt,” she said. At a career fair, Maciel learned about geology and realized geophysics was “the marriage between mathematics and geology.” Coming from a family of mostly visual artists, that educational choice was a point out of the curve.

After completing a master’s degree in geology at UnB, Maciel went on to pursue a doctorate at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, in São Paulo state. She worked with seismic wave monitoring during her Ph.D., and now, 15 years after returning to Brasília, she works at UnB’s Seismological Observatory.

Maciel studies the slight tremors that happen every day. “We study environmental noise; a vibration caused by cars passing or wind blowing is different from that [caused] by landslides or mudslides,” she said. Maciel does a lot of signal processing work looking at data from seismometers spread across Goiás state.

“This course keeps me rooted in reality.”

“We’re trying to catch specific seismic signatures of landslides before they happen,” she said. “That can help civil defense evacuate risk areas before disasters hit.”

Maciel is also a math professor in UnB’s education department, where she teaches undergraduate students from rural areas and traditional communities near Brasília. The training focuses on the realities and needs of the countryside, she said. Geophysics helps her bring real-life examples of math to her classes.

At the end of the day, teaching is a win-win, Maciel said. Her students “know the rocky outcrops and formations of their regions, and I learn a lot from them. We exchange views on nature but also affection. This course keeps me rooted in reality.”

—Meghie Rodrigues (@meghier.bsky.social), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Rodrigues, M. (2025), Susanne Maciel: Marrying mathematics and geology, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250264. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

As a social scientist, Kate Mulvaney researches the intersection of coastal water quality and human populations and behavior.

“People are affected by environmental problems, and people are ultimately going to have to protect the environment or improve the environment,” she said.

After earning her undergraduate degree in marine biology, Mulvaney joined the U.S. Peace Corps as a coastal management resources volunteer in the Philippines.

“It was an exciting position,” she recalled. “We did a lot of snorkeling, diving, reef surveys, and fish counting—the work that a lot of people dream they’re going to do [as] a marine biologist when they grew up.”

She soon realized that the data she and her team were collecting would be more powerful in the hands of people and communities who could use them to inform and enforce more environmentally conscious practices.

“That’s where I started to springboard into human dimensions work,” she said.

Mulvaney earned a master’s degree in marine affairs, a field at the intersection of marine science and marine policy, after which she took a fellowship at the U.S. State Department. There, she learned more about high-level decisionmaking that affects international ocean treaties and policies, which helped contextualize some of the local impacts she had seen earlier in her career.

“There was this consistent call for more social science data in [the] environmental governance space, but there weren’t very many people doing it.”

Both in small Filipino fishing towns and at the State Department, “there was this consistent call for more social science data in [the] environmental governance space, but there weren’t very many people doing it,” Mulvaney said.

That led her to pursue a doctorate in natural resources social science studying fisheries and climate change on the Great Lakes. Mulvaney joined the U.S. EPA more than a decade ago and was the third social scientist ever hired by EPA’s Office of Research and Development.

Over time, Mulvaney has witnessed other fields increasingly recognize the need to consider the human aspects of environmental science and governance.

“That’s been a slow, slow burn,” she said, but it has been rewarding to see her field become more mainstream within the science community.

She’s also experienced that recognition firsthand. In early January 2025, she became the first EPA social scientist to win the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

That acknowledgment “felt like a collective win” for environmental social scientists, she said. “I think it says a lot about the evolution of thinking across disciplines.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Kate Mulvaney: Bringing human dimensions to water resources, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250260. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Jess Phoenix’s career as a volcanologist and science consultant has taken her around the world. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a master’s in geology from California State University, Los Angeles.

“I was definitely a latecomer to the geo-party, but I dove in wholeheartedly,” Phoenix said.

She moved to Australia seeking a geology doctorate from Queensland University of Technology, but she fell out with her adviser and left without finishing her dissertation.

Leaving the program for which she had uprooted her family was terrifying, she said. But she soon realized that doctor or not, her geology education had provided her with a very marketable set of skills. (It was also around that time that she got the first of her many tattoos.)

“Geology is literally everywhere,” she said. “With the skill set you gain, even if you haven’t done the most terminal degree possible, you still have a very solid core of skill sets—pun intended.” Whether it’s making a detailed rock description (important in many industries), analyzing macro- and microscale problems, writing reports, or understanding the scientific method, “those are, fundamentally, extremely valuable skills,” she said. “Once you have them, no one can take them away from you.”

“As long as you maintain that curiosity, that flexibility, that willingness to interrogate your own assumptions and beliefs, you’re going to be OK.”

Phoenix’s wide-ranging career has taken her from the depths of the sea to fields of flowing lava. She wrote a memoir, consults on TV shows and documentaries, and appears as a subject matter expert on international news networks. She cofounded the environmental nonprofit Blueprint Earth, is a fellow of The Explorers Club, and ran for U.S. Congress in 2018.

“By allowing my curiosity to be pretty much unfettered, it’s given me a lot of opportunities to just try things and say yes,” Phoenix said. “You’ve got to be willing to take in new information and update your worldview constantly with your own career as well as your scientific interest. As long as you maintain that curiosity, that flexibility, that willingness to interrogate your own assumptions and beliefs, you’re going to be OK.”

Phoenix also emphasized how crucial staying connected with other scientists has been in her career. “Support their work and be their cheerleaders, and they’ll do the same for you.”

She was an ambassador for the Union of Concerned Scientists for 2 years and has recently returned to freelance science consulting, leading field research expeditions, and personally advocating for science.

“I’m in my own period of shifting and change,” Phoenix said, “but the rocks are always solid beneath my feet.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Jess Phoenix: Curiosity unfettered, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250259. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

A ski racer by the age of six, Jeff Massey has been searching for snow nearly his whole life. “I was tracking snowstorms and nor’easters much more than a first grader should,” he said. When he was in elementary school, his mother took him to visit a local TV meteorologist, who explained how weather forecasting worked.

“After that, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Massey said.

As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Massey studied atmospheric science, then went on to complete a Ph.D. at the University of Utah, studying the impacts of dust events on snow and completing a dissertation focused on weather modeling. He helped other researchers with projects related to snow, too.

After graduate school, Massey mulled over whether he should stay in academia or work in industry. He chose a role supporting a weather data platform for farmers run by the Climate Corporation, an agricultural technology company. He was pleased to find that what he loved about academia—the opportunity to produce original, unique research—was part of the job there, too, with the added benefit that his research had a direct application to farmers’ operations.

“I’ve done agriculture, I’ve done drone delivery, and now I’m doing finance. It’s interesting how related it all is.”

Massey then moved into roles at Amazon, where he used his weather modeling expertise to inform the company’s supply chain operations and, later, to build a new weather modeling infrastructure for Amazon’s drone delivery service.

Now he wields his atmospheric science skills to project how weather might affect certain energy and commodity markets for Squarepoint Capital, an investment firm.

“I’ve done agriculture, I’ve done drone delivery, and now I’m doing finance,” he said. “It’s interesting how related it all is—it’s all just different applications of weather data, machine learning, and programming.”

Businesses will need more weather expertise as climate change progresses and the economic impacts of extreme weather add up, he added. “Weather is still one of those variables you can’t control.”

—Grace van Deelen (@gvd.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: van Deelen, G. (2025), Jeff Massey: Atmospheric science meets the private sector, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250258. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

When Hermínio Ismael de Araújo Jr. started his undergraduate degree in biology in 2006, the culture at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, in northeastern Brazil, was that students got involved in research as early as possible. So at the end of Araújo’s first semester, he joined an animal physiology project and studied how local plants affected diabetic mice.

“But I’ve always liked paleontology better,” he said, so much so that his lab adviser introduced him to paleontologist Kleberson Porpino.

“We talked a lot, and I realized paleontology was really what I wanted to do,” Araújo recalled. From that moment on, he thought his professional path was clear: After graduation, he would get his master’s and doctorate at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), just as Porpino had done not long before.

Araújo was interested in taphonomy, or the study of how bones become fossils. Being a taphonomist is like doing forensics, Araújo said. “We can understand how an animal died, how it got buried, the [geological] processes that happened after that…until the moment we find it.”

The most interesting thing about paleontology “is to be able to give life to something that will never have life again.”

The most interesting thing about paleontology “is to be able to give life to something that will never have life again,” he said.

Halfway to finishing his bachelor’s degree, Araújo looked closely at the selection requirements for a master’s degree in geology at UFRJ. In Brazil, students can enroll in a master’s only after coursework for a bachelor’s degree is completed and their diploma has been conferred, which can take some time after their final semester.

“I didn’t want to wait a year after graduation to start my master’s,” he said.

So he finished his last year of courses a semester early so he could squeeze in a thesis defense and an enrollment in the master’s program in the same year.

Years later, as Araújo was pursuing his Ph.D., a faculty position opened at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Deciding to go for it, he again fast-tracked his degree work, defending his thesis a semester earlier than the official deadline so that he could assume the teaching position he currently holds.

“I’ve been working to help open more space for women and other minoritized groups at the university.”

Araújo said these sharp planning skills were inspired by his parents, who could not access higher education themselves but always encouraged their children to study. “My father is really organized—he does nothing without prior planning,” Araújo said. “My parents are so methodic that up to this day they still go to the supermarket [every week] at the same day and time,” he said, chuckling.

Araújo is currently president of the Brazilian Society of Paleontology and the graduate coordinator of the geosciences program at UERJ. In these positions, he engages in education programs against harassment and discrimination. “I’ve been working to help open more space for women and other minoritized groups at the university,” he said. “It is something I really like and am very proud of.”

—Meghie Rodrigues (@meghier.bsky.social), Science Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Rodrigues, M. (2025), Hermínio Ismael de Araújo Júnior: Savvy planning can get you far, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250257. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Cassius Spears Jr.’s lifelong partnership with the living soil is rooted in the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s cultural ties to the land and subsistence way of life.

Spears grew up on his family’s ancestral land in what is now Rhode Island, hunting, foraging, and learning the traditional place knowledge of his ancestors. As a teenager, he attended community meetings in which Narragansett people discussed concerns about degradation across important landscapes and waters and how it affected harvesting practices and ways of life.

“Witnessing that firsthand concern, as well as witnessing my family’s traditional knowledge of place and what that looks like within landscapes and waterways, inspired me to go down the road of conservation,” he said.

Spears studied environmental conservation at the University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. In school, he frequently encountered scientific concepts that clashed with what his people’s ecological knowledge holds true.

“Early in my education, I was taught to think about soil in physical, taxonomical, or inert ways, which ran [in] conflict with traditional knowledge of soil as living or life-giving,” he said.

“When you live with the land, you inherently build a relationship.”

On soil and many ecological concepts, Spears said that he has seen a greater acceptance in scientific understanding. “Now soil health concepts have aligned with Traditional Ecological Knowledge and perceive soil as a vital living ecosystem,” he said.

In his career as a soil conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Rhode Island, Spears has worked to deepen the understanding between these sources of ecological knowledge. He said that local farmers and other land stewards have been especially receptive to incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into their practices.

“When you live with the land, you inherently build a relationship,” Spears said. “Many farmers understand this; connecting with natural processes every season creates a tangible bond with the land and a sense of responsibility to manage it in a good way.”

Spears takes great pride in the relationships his team has developed with local communities, partnering on projects that improve agricultural soil conservation, restore habitats, and fix riparian forest buffers. He said that having trust and patience, as well as immersing yourself in a community, is the key to building long-lasting and successful collaborations.

“Change doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s essential to listen to and engage with community members genuinely,” he said. “Seeing our local communities lead conservation work inspires me and fills me with hope for future generations.”

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

This profile is part of a special series in our August 2025 issue on science careers.

Citation: Cartier, K. M. S. (2025), Cassius Spears Jr.: Conserving the living soil, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250256. Published on 28 July 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.