Professor and Director, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 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.

The main perspective I bring is more than 30 years of experience studying deep Earth structure. I began working on Earth’s deep interior when I started graduate school in 1993, and I remain just as excited today as I was then to learn new things about our planet’s deep interior. One of the major motivations for my candidacy as Studies of the Earth’s Deep Interior (SEDI) president elect is the opportunity to interact with all the junior scientists (students, post-docs, and assistant professors) who share an interest in deep Earth structure and processes. My own career would not have been possible without the encouragement, advice, and patience I received from senior scientists when I was a post-doc and assistant professor. Since I can't repay these individuals directly, I take satisfaction in "paying it forward" to the next generation of deep Earth scientists.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

Member of Eos editorial and science advisory board, 2010-2021; Founding Editor-in-Chief of The Seismic Record, 2020-2026; Member of AGU Aki Award subcommittee, 2019, 2020, 2026; Member and Chair of the Seismological Society of America Richter Award subcommittee, 2018-2020; Member of Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Board of Directors, 2016-2018

Section presidents and presidents-elect serve as members of the AGU Council and lead their sections. 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.

This role aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. This leadership position is a dual role: helping to advance AGU’s strategic plan as a member of Council; and leading your section. How would you support the Board, staff and other sections to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals? How will you engage with members of your section to execute AGU’s strategic plan?

If elected president of the SEDI section of AGU, I will advocate for our interests within the broader AGU community. I believe the value of basic, curiosity-driven research is sometimes overshadowed in the current era where research with immediate societal impacts is emphasized and celebrated. Basic research often leads to outcomes (both intended and unintended) that lay a foundation for future work with more direct societal impact. I will work to help AGU make this case to the U.S. federal government, including by engaging with members of the Utah congressional delegation to advocate for increased autonomy and financial resources for agencies such as the National Science Foundation, which has a long history of supporting basic research in general, and research into Earth's deep interior in particular. A second key issue is the impact of generative AI (artificial intelligence) on our craft. Many of us have begun experimenting with the new tools, and I believe they will ultimately transform how we communicate science through writing, reviewing, and editing; how we practice science through code development, data visualization, and related tasks; and how we train the next generation of scientists. We will need to work together to develop new norms and conventions around AI that allow our field to continue to thrive.