2026 AGU ELECTIONS
Bonnie Teece
AGU Council Student and Early Career Positions
Early Career Scientist
Bio
Assistant Professor, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 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 came to science by an unusual route. I left school after tenth grade to work, completing my GED equivalent through night classes, then a bridging course for disadvantaged students. I completed an English literature degree and added science partway through and began my science training without having taken any advanced high school maths or science subjects. For years I felt behind and out of place, without the background my peers already had.
My career has taken me across two continents. I started in Australia, where funding for fundamental science is scarce, then left to join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I worked for three years before moving to Cornell. In all three positions, I worked with people in industry, government, education and academia. Working across these systems has given me a direct sense of how unevenly geoscience is resourced and valued depending on where you are.
I would bring my unique perspective as someone with a non-traditional path to this Council. In my career I have often felt like an outsider, and it is my goal to make the field more inclusive for everyone, in line with AGU's goal to promote and exemplify an inclusive scientific culture.
Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:
As former Early Career Lead for NASA's Network for Life Detection Research Coordination Network (RCN), I organized the first cross-RCN early career event, bringing together all five RCNs with 120 in-person attendees. On the Geological Society of Australia's (GSA) Early Career Advisory Council, I brought in psychologists specializing in treating geologists after an industry report on mental health. As former Co-Chair of GSA's Education Group, I worked to create better relationships with high school educators.
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? My career highlight is organizing a fieldtrip to the Pilbara, Western Australia for Mars2020 and ExoMars rover scientists. The Pilbara contains the 3.5 Ga Dresser Formation, a globally important Mars analog due to its ancient age and fossils. I oversaw planning, logistics, administration, and communication. The community in this region was mostly unaware of the globally important geology due to parachute science. To address this, I connected NASA and European Space Agency scientists with high school students and the public and co-organized a field camp for 16 Indigenous Hedland Senior students to meet the scientists and camp near the 3.43 Ga Strelley Pool Formation. Sitting with the students at the campfire after a cultural astronomy lesson is one of my most treasured memories. While developing this trip, I was uncomfortable that educational resources were being developed for Indigenous students without cultural guidance. So, I flew to the Pilbara to work with Aboriginal Education Officers to ensure our exercises were appropriately designed. A student comment illustrates the impact of the camp: "Wow, I can't believe this is out here, I've always thought of this as a bunch of hot rocks." This experience taught me that community involvement, consultation, and co-development are the foundation of meaningful and transformative experiences. It also taught me the importance of showing up and listening, this is what builds trust and leads to authentic engagement, which makes change possible. These lessons make me well placed to contribute to AGU’s mission to support and inspire a global community.