Professor, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes diverse leaders from around the world, 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 any other identity you feel comfortable sharing.

I am a British woman in geoscience, bringing with me the experiences and perspectives I have gathered over the 20 years in academia since being awarded my Ph.D. degree. During that time my husband and I have had two children, who are now almost teens. I have experienced many of the challenges women are still facing today, related to gender inequality, bullying and harassment, balancing work-life commitments and more. I am absolutely committed to tackling these challenges head on and promoting a nurturing and healthy academic environment for all, while maintaining excellence and innovation in science.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

For the American Geophysical Union, I served on the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology (VGP) Fellows’ Committee 2021-2022, as Volcanology, Petrology Secretary 2017-2019, on the VGP Awards Committee 2016-2017, and on the David Perlman Award Committee for Journalism in Science 2004-2007. Elsewhere, I have served as Science Secretary for the Geological Society of London 2014-2018, as an editor of Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 2018 to the present, as Chair of National Environmental Research Council (NERC) discovery grants panel 2017-2021.

This leadership position is a liaison role; it is one that aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. How will you engage with members of your section to advance AGU’s strategic plan? How will you facilitate engagement with other sections and people outside AGU to support our mission?

One of the great strengths of AGU is its role in creating a vast global network of scientists working across disciplines in Earth and space science. And in this busy and time-limited world, a grand challenge is to promote networking and collaborations between us all, build a supportive and nurturing framework for all community members and in particular for early career and minority-group researchers. The VGP section has always played an outsized role in this arena, and is already running a wide range of activities on social media (e.g., #MeetAScientist on Twitter), communicating via newsletters, and organising inclusive sessions, workshops, and social activities for the Fall AGU meeting both in person and online, to enhance participation. But there is a lot more we can do. Within VGP, we can promote and exemplify an inclusive scientific culture by creating opportunities to participate and excel in our field, by playing a role in mentoring and advising early career researchers, by ensuring good practice in publishing, in presenting our science, and in how to interact with others. Social media can be used to greater effect, to bring community together and create initiatives to further AGU strategic aims. Outside of VGP, I see enormous potential in partnering with other organisations to run joint meetings, sessions and activities e.g. European Geosciences Union (EGU), Asia-Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS), Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU), to further our goals of excellent problem-solving science and also to foster international collaboration.

Section affiliations:

Geodesy; Global Environmental Change; Natural Hazards; Near Surface Geophysics; Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology