Professor, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 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 bring an international perspective shaped by training and work across four countries. I was born and educated in India (B.Sc., Jadavpur University; M.Sc., Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai), earned my Ph.D. in the UK (University of Cambridge), and held postdoctoral and research positions in the US (University of Michigan, Yale, Cornell) and Germany (Bayerisches Geoinstitut) before joining Florida State University. As an immigrant scientist and first-generation academic in my family, I understand the challenges of building a career across borders, languages, and institutional cultures.

My Fulbright-Nehru fellowship (2024–2025) renewed my engagement with the scientific community in India, where I continue to informally mentor students and early career researchers, and give invited lectures, helping connect researchers and institutions across the US and South Asia. I have mentored graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduates from many countries, several of whom have gone on to faculty and research positions worldwide. I am committed to strengthening the Mineral and Rock Physics community's connections across countries and institutions, reflecting the global nature of our science.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

I serve as Special Publications Editor of American Mineralogist (2025–present), previously Associate Editor (2016–2025), and Associate Editor of Scientific Reports (2022–present). I'm on the Editorial Advisory Board of Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2023–present) and have served on the Mineralogical Society of America's Lecture Program (2022–2025) and Kraus Research Grant (2019–2022) committees. I also review National Science Foundation proposals and volunteered to provide feedback to first-time AGU presenters.

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?

I envision the role of secretary as a conduit of information exchange between leadership—president, president-elect—and the members of the Mineral and Rock Physics community. That means prompt, clear communication via website updates and/or listserv emails.

I'd work with the president and president-elect to keep good notes on what's discussed and decided, and make sure that communication actually goes out promptly—something I've learned matters a lot from chairing faculty search committees and sitting on our department's executive committee.

For member engagement, I'd rather keep things simple and direct: short, clear updates after Council meetings, plain-language summaries of what's relevant to mineral and rock physics researchers, and making sure award and funding opportunities don't get buried. My editorial work for American Mineralogist and other journals has taught me how to take something complicated and make it more accessible to a wider audience, which is exactly what section communications need.

I also want to actually talk to people, not just send updates outward. Early career researchers, members at smaller institutions, people working internationally—I'd like to hear what they're missing from the section and bring that back to leadership, rather than assuming I already know.