I am a Senior Earth Scientist, Earth Sciences Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center. I use satellite data to study the earth and climate in particular.

EDUCATION | Bachelor's in Biology from Colorado State University; Master's and Doctorate in Earth Science from Colorado State University

HOW TO GET STARTED | Study biology, physical science, or earth science in college. Seek out an internship from organizations involved in this work, such as NASA and the National Space Club, to see if you like the work before you jump into it.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | You have to be curious about the world, work well in teams, and like to travel. You also need to be committed to helping improve things in the world and add to our knowledge of our planet.

how I got started | I got started purely by accident. After I graduated with a degree in biology, I worked at two banks, and realized banking wasn't for me. So I went back to school, not yet sure of what direction I would go, and was working in a greenhouse driving a truck. I happened to read an article in the college newspaper about a program where scientists were studying plants, rocks, and geological materials by the light they reflect and their thermal emissions. It seemed interesting, so I applied to get into the program. The person in charge of the program cultivated plants, thought I knew more about greenhouse plants than I did, and let me into the program. I earned my Master's and PhD, working studying how plants reflect light, information that could be gathered from instruments on the ground, from airplanes, or from satellite. I also learned through experimentation to measure how much carbon dioxide plants are consuming through photosynthesis and how to do this satellites.

why this job?| It's fun, I'm curious about how natural systems work, and in using this information for beneficial purposes. My group works as a team using satellite data to do things like discover early warning signs of famine in various areas; to predict when there will be outbreaks of disease, mainly in Africa and Arabia, as well as in the United States and other areas; to study tropical deforestation; to study glacier variation over time; and to study global photosynthesis on land.

why I love this job!| It's very interesting, you get to travel to interesting places doing field work, and the work we do benefits the common good by helping prevent famine, disease, and identify how vegetation is changing throughout the world.

my typical day| For two or three months of the year, I'm doing field work around the globe, such as Alaska, the western US, the Amazon Basin in South America, the Andes, or Central Asia. In my office at NASA, I work with a group of 12 people. We collaborate on different projects and meet to discuss new information from our studies. It's kind of like a classroom: We work together and we learn together. There's always something new. Recently I presenting a seminar at the University of Alaska and people there asked if we could improve our satellite data so they could be used to see how the vegetation in the Arctic has changed over the past 29 years. We improved how we process our satellite data at high latitudes and together were able to discover a trend toward earlier spring in the Arctic, which helped confirm the validity of global warming.

what they are | Trying to find enough time to do all the things I want to do that I find interesting. I'd like to clone myself so I could keep up with all the interesting things we discover through the use of satellite data.

all about growth | The potential for growth in this field is tremendous. There's a great need for scientists who understand the coupled ocean-land-atmosphere system through the use of satellite data and numerical models. Through the knowledge gained by these means, we'll be able to identify if conditions are getting worse, and if so, how to turn things around.

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