Back in high school, a chemistry teacher warned me. Casey (Katherine) IvanovichA class of adoration that comes with using mathematics and science as a tool to understand the mystical world around them. Ivanovic then brought this moment and its inspiration into her career as a scientist.
This summer after graduating from his PhD, Ivanovic, a program at the Lamont-Dohatiers Observatory, is currently a postdoctoral program fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Institute, with extreme and humid climates, including physical and social drivers. I’m studying fever. She is also passionate about communicating complex scientific concepts to more and more public.
In the Q&A below, Ivanovic looks back on his path to climate research and offers advice to female scientists.
How did you get into science?
I first fell in love with Earth Science in my high school chemistry class. The teacher’s wife pauses halfway through the board, turn around and reflects on her respectfulness that we create mathematics to explain the world around us and explain it. When I did, there was a moment I always remember…and it works! I think this little interaction really inspired my sense of what our planet is and the incredible tools we have to understand and protect it. This motivation has followed me through my academic background. Today I am studying when and why extreme humidity occurs to better prepare for human health and socioeconomic impacts.
How can we support and guide female scientists?
The greatest way we can help female scientists is to advocate for concrete and material changes in existing academic structures. This includes improving parent support policies, securing salaries stock, and implementing effective anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies. This also involves performing administrative tasks, changing the balance of people who speak during meetings, or changing expectations for individuals to move at each step of their career, and rebuilding social support networks. It should include changes to academic culture, such as enforcement. To promote diversity in STEM, including but not limited to gender diversity, we need to continue to create current “unwritten rules” of academia transparency.
“As we progress through our careers, don’t forget to return the information we learned along the way to facilitate the process of scientists who go through the same process after us!”
Do you have any advice for young women and girls who are interested in entering the field?
I think mentorship is an important part of building a community and providing a structure for change. I advise women to take advantage of all the opportunities that arise to connect with potential mentors. This means meeting one-on-one with someone from your lab group, enrolling in a formal mentorship program or taking part in a social event to meet people who work in it. Your field. The challenges faced in STEM regarding gender can intersect with countless other aspects of our identity, and connecting with individuals who share some of your experiences takes time and trial. However, it is essential and supportive of my work to openly and honestly connect with people I can openly and honestly, in order to get constructive guidance on professional decisions. It has been found to be essential to creating a productive environment for research discussions.
As we progress through our careers, we will return the information we have learned to help the scientists we learn to go through the same process and facilitate the process.
