Author Archives: Julia Cahill Carr

Mentor-Mentee Match

The AWG mentor/mentee program will be hosting its annual match-up event, this Wednesday, October 6th from 5:00 –6:00pm, outside behind the Hintz Alumni building (google maps — underneath the tents).  We will have snacks, come hang out and meet potential mentors or mentees!

The program pairs undergraduate and graduate students in order to build relationships and provide a resource for advice on internships, finding research opportunities, applying to graduate school, career options, etc.  AWG will subsidize the cost for each mentor/mentee pair to go out for a coffee break or lunch once a month.  Undergraduate and graduate students, and all genders are encouraged to participate.  If you are unable to attend the event, you may sign up to be paired with a mentor or mentee at this link by OCTOBER 15.

Alumni Career Panel Discussion

What: The Department of Geosciences Alumni Advisory Board is hosting a career
panel during which alumni working in the Energy and the Environmental fields as
well as within Academics will be available to discuss career paths in their respective
areas.

When: Tuesday September 14, 2021, 5:00-6:30 pm EDT.
Who: All undergraduate and graduate students are WELCOME. If you are not able to
join the entire meeting, feel free to join portions that fit your schedule. Also, see below for an additional or alternate way to connect with alumni for a quick one-on-
one discussion.

How: THIS IS A VIRTUAL EVENT. The event will kick off with a brief welcome
session and then students will break into smaller groups and “rotate” through three
Zoom meeting rooms for 15-20 minute sub-sessions with alumni from the three career
areas, followed by a brief wrap-up session.

Please pre-register in advance at the below link to receive the Zoom meeting
invitation along with brief bios for the alumni that will be participating:
Zoom Registration Link

 

Additional Options for Connecting with Alumni

Prior to the Alumni Career Panel event, the Advisory Board is also offering options to
connect remotely with an alum for an informal, 15-minute, one-on-one discussion.
Alumni are available to take a quick look at a resume, help you prep for interacting at the career fair, offer career advice, or simply chat. Feel free to sign up for a one-on-
one call even if you cannot attend the virtual Career Panel. The AWG chapter is managing a signup sheet for one-on-one discussion slots that will occur between 3:00
– 4:20 pm EDT on September 14, 2021– sign up for a time slot HERE

First General Meeting of 2021-22 school year

This week we will be holding our first general meeting of the Association for Women in Geosciences of the year on Wednesday, September 8, at 5:15pm in 541 Deike.

For those who are new to our program, ours is a student chapter of the international association, and each year we’re responsible for organizing a number of fundraising events, outreach opportunities, and career development discussions in the Department of Geosciences. These include chats with visiting professors and researchers, brown-bag discussions on social issues, an undergraduate-graduate mentor-mentee program, and out-of-department social gatherings.

 

We encourage everyone who is interested – undergraduate and graduate, and regardless of gender expression – to consider attending our first general meeting to learn about our plans for the semester and consider signing up for our mailing list. We’re hoping to hold meetings in person this year, but if you are still remote and want to be kept in the loop by email, please let me know to add you to the listserv. You can also check out our website for more info, including our events calendar, or follow our handle on Twitter or on Instagram.

New officers for 2021-2022

We have just hosted our final general meeting of the semester, and elected new officers for 2021-2021. Thanks to all of the officers for 2020-2021 that helped to navigate AWG through an unusual year, and congrats to our new officer board!

Our officers for 2021-2022:

Safiya Alpheus & Katie Horisk, Presidents
Adam Benfield, Treasurer
Ben Barnes, Secretary
Hanna Leapaldt & Karen Pham, Outreach Coordinators
Charlotte Connop & Fai Chanchai, Event Coordinators
Julia Carr & Claire Webster, Mentor/Mentee Coordinators
Erica Lucas & Ben Barnes, Social Committee
Shelby Bowden & Sam Shaheen, Fundraising
Julia Carr & Sierra Melton, Webmaster & Historian

AWG Trivia redux! Take a Break: Trivia Night, April 15th, 6:30 PM

Building on the resounding success of our last AWG trivia night, we will be hosting another trivia night on April 15th at 6:30pm. Our very own Trivia Master, Ben Barnes will host! The cover of $5 per person will go to support undergraduate field camp scholarships. Please venmo Adam Benfield (Adam-Benfield-3 on Venmo, i.e. the one with the giant sequoia pic), several days prior to the event. You can sign yourself and your team up here. Zoom link to follow. To ensure a margin of fairness, please limit teams to no more than 6 people.

Come one, come all! We welcome everyone: undergrad, grad, postdoc, faculty, staff, family, and friends! We look forward to the creative team names, the heckling, and – most importantly – seeing you all (virtually).





Flyer for AWG trivia night, saying 'Do you have what it takes to defeat the Freeman-Patzkowsky household? AWG tribia night on April 15th, 6:30 PM on zoom.

AWG Coffee Hour with Dr. Sara Kimming March 2 @10am

This week we will be having AWG coffee hour tomorrow, March 2 at 10 AM with our own Dr. Sara Kimming.

Sara is the Facility Director of the Laboratory for Isotopes and Metals in the Environment (LIME) in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Penn State University. Some of her research interests include applying non-CHONS isotopes as tracers in multiple systems including nutrient cycling, dolomite formation, and global ocean cycling. Her main research interests revolve around novel applications of mass spectrometry for environmental remediation and geochemical fingerprinting. Her research has taken her between multiple universities and a national lab in pursuit of establishing clean laboratories and mass spectrometry methods. Sara and her husband landed in State College in August of 2020.

As usual, coffee hour will be a relaxed time to talk to Sara about life, career paths, academic interests, or anything else.

Brown Bag lunch with Dr. Jesse Reimink: Feb 10 @ noon

We’re going to have our first brown bag of the semester next Wednesday (2/10) at high noon! We’ll be hosting our very own Dr. Jesse Reimink, who does science outreach as a co-host of a podcast called Planet Geo which launched last fall. We aim to discuss science outreach and communications with Jesse, as well as what it’s like to contribute to a podcast.

Planet Geo Ep 5 (can also be found on Spotify):
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1237277/5541907

Blog Article:
https://blog.bakerinstitute.org/2020/12/15/lessons-from-2020-to-avoid-future-disasters-improve-science-communication/
If you’d like to come, you can prepare by checking out a blog article on science communication as well as a recent episode of Planet Geo, both linked above. Jesse has emphasized that these materials don’t represent expert advice, but are an opinion-based springboard for our discussion.

We hope to see you there!

Colloquium Speaker ‘Coffee Hour’, Jan 19, 2021

Welcome back (virtually) for the spring semester!




We hope that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing break and that your semester starts well! The first colloquium of the semester is tomorrow, with Dr. Jessica Tierney from the University of Arizona. Due to the time difference between PA and AZ we will be holding our first ‘coffee hour’ of the semester tomorrow from 5:30 PM – 6:15 PM (after colloquium).




Dr. Tierney’s research uses organic biomarkers, alongside climate model output, statistical approaches, and other paleoclimate data to recreate past climate conditions. As usual, this will be a relaxed hour to get to know the speakers and learn more about their career paths, research, and interests outside of academia.

 

Brown Bag Lunch Discussion: November 11 @ noon

    We are hosting a virtual brown bag lunch discussion this Wednesday (11/18) at 12pm, accessible through this Zoom link. Our brown bag series has typically been an opportunity for members of the department to lead informal discussions on various societal or institutional issues in the geosciences or broader academia, and is open for all students, staff, researchers, and faculty to participate.

 

    This week, Julia Carr and Ben Barnes will be revisiting the topic of accessibility in conferences, and framing the discussion around how virtual conferences this year have handled the new format, and what aspects of virtual conferences could be repeated following the quarantine to boost accessibility. We will anchor this discussion primarily in two recent articles: Sohn’s interviews in Nature which highlight the aspects of in-person scientific conferences that limit accessibility to many attendees, and Bailey’s recent GSA Today article enumerating the positive aspects of virtual conference formats during lockdown.

 

    In addition to these articles, you may be interested to hear more perspectives on conference accessibility: we have attached links to many resources below which give excellent advice for presenting talks and posters effectively and conscientiously.

 

All are welcome to join in our discussion this Wednesday! We look forward to seeing you there,

 

Thanks!
Julia and Ben

 

Talks:
Posters:
Both:
  • Stay color-blind friendly! Why should we care? Resources for figuring it out:
  • Viz Palette — want to see what your color scheme looks like in line, area, scatter plots, words, on different backgrounds, and check for color blindness all at once? Integrates with Chroma.js and other great color resources, and auto-generates hex color codes for your scripts. I think this is the best tool out there, and I use it all the time.
  • Paletton –have no idea where to start? Find logical combos based on color theory & export all the color tables. Good for categorical data.
  • Chroma.js Color Palette Helper — need to create perceptually uniform color gradients (sequential or diverging)?  Also auto-generates hex color codes to put into your scripts

AWG Trivia Fundraiser

Have you ever wanted to beat your committee members in a trivia contest? Have you ever wanted to dazzle your colleagues with your command of useless knowledge? Do you want to raise money for AWG scholarships? Well, now is your chance! AWG has organized a Geoscience Department trivia session hosted by none other than resident trivia master Mr. Ben Barnes. Everyone, undergrad, grad, post-docs, and faculty are welcome and encouraged to participate!

 

The date is Nov. 17th at 7pm. The place is Ben Barnes’ zoom room (link will follow after signing up).

 

There is a $5 per person charge to participate (payable to Adam-Benfield-3 via Venmo). All proceeds are put towards AWG field camp scholarships. To sign up, please fill out this google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16Uf4lvAOcvaFRxTz-FgH3-Bin8bJLk3xuxLj0iAA9z8/edit?usp=sharing

You can self-organize into your own teams or throw caution to the wind and be randomly assigned a team. Your choice! Please limit team sizes to 6-7 people to make the relative brain power fair to everyone.