By Laura Guertin, Penn State Brandywine

Back in early January, a geoscience colleague of mine retweeted an announcement about a new program “to help geoscientists develop policies and programs meant to improve accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.” The URGE (Unlearning Racism in Geoscience) program, funded by the National Science Foundation and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, encouraged individuals to come together in pods for a sixteen-week program with the following purpose:

(1) to deepen the community’s knowledge of the effects of racism on the participation and retention of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in Geoscience;

(2) to draw on existing…

Located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is one of the top organizations across the globe recognized for excellence in ocean exploration, research, and education. One of the streets that winds through the WHOI campus was named Maury Lane in honor of Matthew Fontaine Maury, author of the first comprehensive book on oceanography published in 1855, titled The Physical Geography of the Sea. He is referred to in introductory oceanography textbooks as the Father of Modern Oceanography for being the first to systematically collect and compare data such as temperature and ocean current information on a…

A post in honor of World Poetry Day

By Laura Guertin

Amanda Gorman quickly became a household name after she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the January 20, 2021, inauguration of the 46th President of the United States of America. President Joseph R. Biden was only the fourth president in U.S. history to have a poet read at his inauguration (see the listing of other poets/poems). …

November 2016 was a turning point for a lot of people, including me. I was naïve during the Obama years, blindly thinking America had turned a corner and decided to end racism, bigotry, and discrimination. I was very wrong, and as a white woman, I knew that my complacency was part of the problem.

I fell into a depression that lasted a few months, but then an email dropped into my inbox. It spoke of a pledge to do better and to use the science I love to create a more equitable world. “Fuck Yes!” …

By Laura Guertin

The United Nations General Assembly established February 11 as an annual day for women and girls in science. As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasizes in the video above, as a global community, females have yet to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science. Long-standing biases and gender stereotypes are in our way, such as representation in textbooks to television. But it’s now the 2021 celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science — and we’re making progress on the gender imbalance, right?

We know that for decades, multiple organizations…

By Saranya Anantapantula

When I was in third grade, I learned about how much water we wasted at school. Naturally, I stuck a 5-minute hourglass shower timer to the wall to make myself use less water. My family began to use it as well, exclaiming about how they began spending less time in the shower. They were so happy that they could save money and time using a bright pink, polka-dotted shower timer.

As a student, writer, podcaster, researcher, and founder of the non-profit 4AGreenEnvironment, I find that education is the best way to help someone discern their connection with…

The 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod went to Harrisburg, PA on November 18, 2019, and lobbied for a number of important issues. These one-pagers were given to our representatives outlining our recommendations.

Climate change is already having negative impacts on communities throughout the United States.[1] We are running out of time to decarbonize the US and global economy to limit global warming and the risks of catastrophic climate change. Current commitments to eliminate emissions must become significantly more ambitious.[2,3,4,5] In the past, great undertakings such as this have harmed marginalized communities and exacerbated inequalities. In our current system, minority and…

The 500 Women Scientists Philly Pod went to Harrisburg, PA on November 18, 2019, and lobbied for a number of important issues. These one-pagers were given to our representatives outlining our recommendations.

More than 41% of college graduates in the sciences are women,[2] but women during their education and careers has been less successful, and many women cite gender harassment as the root cause.[1] According to #MeTooSTEM, 26% of women are assaulted during fieldwork and 50% of women in medical school experience sexual harassment. 90% of women experience retaliation when they report their sexual harassment.[4] Retaining women in the workforce…