2026 AGU ELECTIONS
Cooper Yerby
AGU Council Student and Early Career Positions
Early Career Scientist
Bio
Fellow, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, U.S. Department of Energy , Philadelphia, PA, USA
AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders representing various identities, voices and perspectives. List any identities, voices and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and anything else you feel comfortable sharing.
I would bring my perspective as a gay scientist whose career has crossed academia, government, nonprofit leadership, and engagement with industry. Moving between communities has shown me that people often approach the same scientific challenge with different priorities, vocabularies, and definitions of success. I value helping groups understand one another and identifying where differing perspectives can support shared goals.
My regional perspective has been shaped by growing up in Kansas City, studying in Los Angeles, and completing my Ph.D. and building my career in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. These experiences have introduced me to communities with different relationships to environmental science, energy development, public institutions, and economic opportunity.
Internationally, I have collaborated with researchers and students from Switzerland, Brazil, China, and Lebanon and mentored a global cohort of science and engineering students through the Born Global Foundation. These relationships have reinforced my belief that scientific talent is globally distributed, while access to mentorship, networks, and opportunity is not. I would work to ensure that AGU reflects early career scientists across disciplines, sectors, regions, identities, and national backgrounds, while serving as a visible advocate for LGBTQ+ members of the community.
Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:
At Penn, I helped lead an initiative that secured $100,000 to renovate the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center and expand environmental-science education in West Philadelphia. I also served as an educational coordinator for the National Science Foundation Center for Sustainable Separation of Metals, developing outreach materials used by 700+ schools. Through the Born Global Foundation, I mentor an international cohort of science and engineering students. At the Department of Energy, I support coordination of federal battery and critical-minerals consortia.
Q&A
The AGU Council is a diverse forum of perspectives that meets throughout the year to provide input to the AGU Board, staff, and other parts of the organization. Three communities within the Council—committee chairs, section leaders, and students and early career scientists—serve different roles in AGU and bring unique viewpoints to ongoing discussions.
The Council has up to 12 positions for student and early career members. The student and early career voices on the Council are critical to the future of Earth and space sciences. How have you taken intentional action to inspire others to advance a cause, mission, or goal? During my Ph.D. at Penn, I helped to found and lead an initiative to strengthen the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center (CCCEC) as a hub for environmental education. Philadelphia faces a clear need to expand access to meaningful science education, with only about one-third of district students assessed as proficient or advanced in science. From my time volunteering in the community before the initiative, I saw tremendous scientific curiosity among students in West Philadelphia and worked with team members to connect that curiosity with nearby institutions and careers. My team began the engagement process by listening to CCCEC staff, community members, and educators to understand how the center could best meet the needs of respective stakeholder communities. We then worked over two years with eight West Philadelphia schools, spanning kindergarten through 12th grade, to build lasting partnerships with Penn’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) communities. Together, we expanded opportunities for teachers, students, and community members to learn from university professors, conduct field investigations of local water and ecosystems, and use scientific equipment at the Center. For high school students, these relationships have also created a pathway into university laboratories, where they can gain research experience, explore scientific careers and further education, and pursue paid opportunities in environmental research. Although our team secured $100,000 for the Center, I am proudest of the connections we inspired others to sustain. The experience taught me that advancing a mission requires listening, building trust, and creating opportunities for people to see themselves as active participants in science.