Researcher, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, 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 several intersecting identities and perspectives to AGU leadership.

As a first-generation Chinese-American scientist with family roots in Wenzhou, China, I bring an immigrant's perspective on building scientific careers across cultures and long-standing ties to the East Asian Earth and planetary science community, including collaborators across Japan, China, and South Korea.

As a faculty member based in Hawaiʻi, I bring a Pacific and island perspective — geographically distant from most AGU activities but rich in Indigenous scientific heritage, volcanic and oceanic geoscience, and cross-Pacific collaboration. I am attentive to access challenges faced by colleagues at isolated and under-resourced institutions.

As a mineral physicist and planetary materials scientist, I bring the voice of a small, interdisciplinary community bridging Earth science, planetary science, materials physics, and chemistry through shared national and international user facilities.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

I am chairing the User Group Committee for Synchrotron Earth and Environmental Science (SEES), and served as Facility Committee Chair for the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences, supporting synchrotron and high-pressure user programs across national facilities. I have served on the Section Canvassing Committee for AGU Mineral and Rock Physics and on the External Advisory Committee for Arizona State University’s Facility for Open Research in a Compressed Environment (FORCE). 

The section secretary role is determined by individual sections. If needed, the secretary might be asked to serve as an alternate to the president or president-elect at a Council meeting.

As part of the section leadership team, how will you work in partnership with your president, president-elect, other leaders, and staff to communicate with and engage your members to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals?

As Secretary of the Mineral and Rock Physics (MRP) section, I see my role as a connector — ensuring the President, President-elect, fellow leaders, AGU staff, and members move together toward AGU's vision of a thriving, sustainable, and equitable future supported by scientific discovery.

In partnership with the President and President-elect, I will maintain a steady cadence of communication: clear agendas, transparent minutes, timely follow-through, and proactive coordination with AGU staff. I will help the Secretary role provide reliable continuity across leadership transitions.

Our section is uniquely dependent on, and uniquely positioned to advocate for, national user facilities — synchrotron beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source, National Synchrotron Light Source II, Advanced Light Source, and Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource; neutron sources at the Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor; and high-pressure consortia such as SEES, Chicago/DOE Alliance Center (CDAC), and FORCE. To catalyze discovery and solutions, I will help amplify cross-disciplinary sessions linking MRP to seismology, geodynamics, geochemistry, and Earth and planetary interiors.

To promote an inclusive scientific culture, I will support diverse conveners, nominators, and award candidates, and prioritize access for early-career scientists, students, and members at under-resourced and international institutions.

To strengthen broad partnerships, I will champion sustained engagement with the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and NASA-supported facilities and with sister sections.