On Earth

Anton Santos is a BSc candidate from the University of British Columbia in a Combined Major in Science comprised of life sciences, chemistry, and environmental science. His experiences working in STEAM education and science communication have inspired him to pursue a career in knowledge translation hoping to equip others with the tools to make informed decisions.

Spencer Goyette is a curatorial assistant at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Herbarium in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He helps maintain the botanical collections for use by researchers and students at UBC and abroad. Spencer holds a BSc in Biology with a concentration in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, a BSc in Plant Biology, and minor in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University, as well as an MSc in Biology from The University of Alberta. Before coming to UBC in 2021, Spencer worked as a museum and lab technician at the Smithsonian Institution in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Sorry listeners, a few days late with this one — enjoy! Elisabeth (Ellie) is a Master student in Geophysics and a Planetary Scientist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she studies a landform unique to Mercury called hollows. She focuses on those occurring at impact craters and whether a relationship can be derived between relative crater age and hollow locations within their host craters in order to better understand how hollows form, grow and "die" on Mercury. Ellie completed her undergraduate degree in Geology in France before moving to BC where she can now be found roaming the mountains in her spare time. Correction: This episode was edited by Oli Beeby

Chris Payne is an oceanographic technician at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences. He helps people accomplish their research successfully both in the field and the lab. In addition to maintaining a wide variety of oceanographic and lab equipment, he also maintains the departmental workboat and helps teach the yearly Methods in Oceanography Field Course. He holds a BSC. in Biology from the University of Ottawa and an MSC. in Biology from McGill University. Prior to coming to UBC, Chris held technical roles at McGill University, l’Université de Montréal and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Fernanda Tomaselli is a Lecturer at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Forestry and the coordinator of UBC’s Land One program. She teaches first- and second-year courses related to conservation, climate change and sustainability. Her research about the green economy and post-growth communication has been published in the Journals International Forestry Review and Ecological Economics. She holds a BSc. in Environmental Communication from San Francisco de Quito University (Ecuador) and a MSc. and PhD from the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia.

Flavia Orrico is a project manager and content curator at the social project Experimente Cultura, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the last 2 years, her project has been connecting Brazilian students from the public school system and NGOs in Rio with museums and cultural and scientific institutes from all over the world, democratizing access to these institutions and combining technology, creativity, and management skills. Flavia studied business administration and marketing at ESPM (Rio) and has an MBA in project management from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Dr. Kirstin Brink is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Manitoba and Adjunct Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, MB. She is a vertebrate palaeontologist interested in the evolution and development of biomineralized tissues (teeth and bones). Ongoing projects in the lab involve dinosaurs, marine reptiles, non-mammalian synapsids (like Dimetrodon, an ancestor of mammals) and living animal models (lizards and fish). We use histology, microscopy, Computed Tomography (CT scans), Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and geochemical analyses to address our research questions.

I am Oladimeji Ayo Iwalaye, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Professor Maite Maldonado’s laboratory in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (BC, Canada), in collaboration with the PlasticLab at OceanWise (https://ocean.org/pollution-plastics/plastics_lab/). I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from Ekiti State University, Nigeria and a Master of Science degree in Zoology (major in Animal Physiology) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I have a PhD degree in Marine Biology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The strong passion I have for life in the marine environment because the ocean houses more life than land has led to my interest in plastic pollution and global climate change research. I investigated the effects of increasing temperature and microplastic concentrations on microplastic ingestion and retention rates in two filter- and one deposit-feeding marine invertebrates for my PhD. My Postdoctoral Research focuses on toxicological effects of polyester microfibers on indigenous marine amphipods, using microcosm and mesocosm studies. I hope to continue using my knowledge to provide evidence-based proof of the effects of microplastics and temperature on marine biota using laboratory studies. I participated in several beach clean-ups in South Africa, and was part of the support personnel at the OceanWise International Coastal Clean-up, 2022 help in Vancouver. I am always eager and excited to participate in research and activities that can provide evidence-based results that can help policymakers to make informed decisions that will promote a clean, safe and healthy environment for marine biota.

Kallie Moore is an enthusiastic paleontologist and science communicator. She is the Collections Manager, or ‘Fossil Librarian’, of the paleontology collection at the University of Montana and co-host the YouTube channel PBS Eons (youtube.com/eons). Her debut children's book, "Tales of the Prehistoric World", was released in the fall of 2022.

At the time the podcast was recorded (November, 2022) James was a 4th year geology undergrad at UBC. James worked as a work-learn student in EOAS from Sept to December, 2022. As a student, James is heavily involved in his classes by asking lots of questions, running mineralogical & petrological review sessions for his peers & loving the process of learning. In his spare time, James enjoys discovering new concepts, chatting with people of different perspectives & expanding his worldview.

Derek Tan is the Manager of Exhibitions at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. He has worked in collections and on public engagement in museums as a multimedia designer, photographer, and illustrator. Derek studied biology and art history at UBC. His projects combine his scientific background with visual creativity to encourage people to investigate the world around them and their place within it.

Madison is currently enrolled in her second year of the Masters of Archaeological Science program at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She is studying ancient bison mobility at Promontory Caves, Utah using strontium isotope analysis. Promontory is an exceptional opportunity to explore variability in the strontium isotope compositions of multiple substrates (including dung!) to create an effective and reliable strontium baseline. Madison is also a chemistry and microbiology analyst at a laboratory where she has worked since high school. Outside of school work, Madison is a coordinator of Let's Talk Science (Lakehead Thunder Bay campus) which promotes youth involvement in STEM.

Lindsay is the Earth Science Educational Field and Laboratory Coordinator at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She recently joined the university, previously working as a field geologist in private industry. After spending many years in field camps across the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, British Columbia, and Ontario, she is now focused on using those experiences to support undergraduate students. While she was completing the Masters of Land and Water Systems program at UBC in 2020, Lindsay became more interested in how people teach and learn in the natural sciences. Through her current role, she is excited to pursue this interest further by collaboratively developing the lab and field components that are essential to Earth science education.

I am a PhD student in geophysics in the seismology field. I am developing a novel automatic numerical approach to recover the rupture mechanisms of small earthquakes. The identification of rupture mechanisms of a large number of earthquakes is then used to identify potential hazardous faults and gain a better understanding of the forces governing the tectonic plates.

Brooke is an environmental geochemist that studies metal cycling by analyzing animal tissues and byproducts, known as biomonitors. By measuring lead isotopes and metal concentrations in biomonitors a more detailed picture of how metals move through the environment can be seen. Brooke works with honey from Vancouver, chum salmon from the Pacific ocean, and bowhead whale baleen plates from the Hudson Bay, all of which tell a unique story about metals in the various settings.

Connor Heise completed his Undergraduate degree in Materials Engineering at UBC in 2019. That same year he started a Masters of Applied Science in the same department under Dr. Edouard Asselin in the Hydrometallurgy Group. Connor's research focuses on variability in mineral electrochemistry, exploring methods to combat it, and the most appropriate ways of reporting on it to allow future research to properly utilize information. The research uses chalcopyrite as its exemplar mineral as industry and consumers are requiring copper more than ever before. This research suits Connor's desire to understand foundational information from which all other knowledge builds from. It is never of enough to simply have an answer, but rather an answer the provides understanding for himself and those around him. Outside of research, Connor enjoys playing tennis and disc golf as well as writing poetry and music. And let's face it, he loves a warm tea with dark chocolate.

Anne-Martine (Marti) Doucet is a Research Technician at the University of British Columbia currently working with the CarbMin laboratory supervised by Dr. Greg Dipple and Dr. Uli Mayer. Her research focuses on measuring and monitoring CO2 exchange at the sediment-atmosphere interface in natural and engineered environments that enable carbon mineralization reactions (where CO2 from the atmosphere or water reacts with cations (Ca, Mg) and precipitate a carbon mineral). She completed her Bachelor degree at the University of Ottawa in Environmental Sciences with a focus in Environmental Geochemistry and recently completed a Masters degree here at UBC in Geological Sciences supervised by Dr. Uli Mayer. In her spare time, you can catch Marti biking (on roads and mountains) and playing disc golf.

Dante Lauretta is a Regents Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He is an expert in near-Earth asteroid formation and evolution. He is the leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission. OSIRIS-REx is the United States' premier mission to visit one of the most Potentially Hazardous near-Earth Asteroids, survey it to assess its impact hazard and resource potential, understand its physical and chemical properties, and return a sample of this body to Earth for detailed scientific analysis. The spacecraft launched in September 2016 and began its journey to Bennu, a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft rendezvoused with Bennu in 2018 and successfully obtained a sample in October 2020. The spacecraft embarked on its return voyage to Earth on May 10, 2021. Sample return to Earth occurs in 2023. He also maintains an active research program in Cosmochemistry and Meteoritics.

Davi holds a Bachelor's and Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES, Brazil), and is also an alumnus of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he studied for two semesters through the Sciences Without Borders program. At the University of British Columbia, Davi is a Ph.D. Student in Atmospheric Sciences, at the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS), supervised by Dr. Naomi Zimmerman. He received the President’s Academic Excellence Award, the W.H. Mathew scholarship, and the 4 Year Doctoral Fellowship. His work aims to investigate the air quality impacts of the emerging cannabis industry and explore the links between odours, air quality, and health.

Dave Daquioag is a research technician for the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research at the University of British Columbia where he assists students and researchers with isotopic analysis of their samples. His main tasks include the separation and purification of radiogenic isotopes from whole rock or mineral samples using ion exchange column chemistry and the analysis of Sr isotopes with the Nu Instruments Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (Nu TIMS). He completed his BSc in chemistry at UBC and has past experience working in different industrial lab settings from characterizing surfactant material to analyzing potash minerals.