Sunday, March 3, 2013

Standing on the shoulders of giants..

Hanna Jackson, pictured above, is one of my undergraduate geology students after a cave field trip that I ran for Environmental Geology.  

I am so excited to announce that Hanna was awarded an International Programs Research Award that will fully fund a water quality research project on Lake Victoria that we will be working on  together during the summer. Hanna Jackson will be participating in Trip 1: Geology of Tanzania- Serengeti/Kilimanjaro/Zanzibar Circuit and then leave for her research expedition in Uganda. 

Being a researcher is hard enough if the odds are in your favor.  The most recent statistics  reveal that in the field of geology less than 10% of women make it to a PhD; the amount is even smaller if you consider the percentage of those women who actually become tenured and permanent fixtures in geology departments.  I would not have become a researcher if it hadn't been for my colleague and dear friend, Dr. Mary Anne Holmes from University of Nebraska, giving me some positive encouragement during my Masters Degree program. And my research in Africa would only still be a dream without the help of Dr. Julie Pynn. I hope that  if we continue to support women in science that we can create a more balanced representation of women in the field of geology. Now, it is all up to Hanna to become a lifter and to share the dream with someone else....