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Geo-Heroes #2
Geo-Heroes #2
Maya Bhatia
Dr. Maya Bhatia was a Canadian climate scientists, glaciologist and biogeochemist. Her research considered how changing climate, dynamic ice sheets and associated glacial meltwaters are influencing ocean chemistry. Dr. Bhatia considered complex systems that link the cryosphere with the ocean ecosystem and the atmosphere through modulation of carbon and other greenhouse gas flux from the ocean and land surface. As a professor at the University of Alberta, Dr. Bhatia frequently coordinated complex field campaigns on the Greenland Icesheet that included large teams of students and colleagues.
In addition to her important research quantifying climate feedbacks, Dr. Bhatia contributed to contemporary discussions of how early career female scientists are challenged with identity family, and health-relate challenges, and how those challenges contribute to the ‘leaky-pipeline’ phenomenon. Through her glaciology research, Maya was dedicated to building relationships with local indigenous communities in Greenland, and collaborated closely with the Inuit hamlet of Aujuittuq, the northernmost community in Canada. Through these collaborations, Maya worked with the community to solve challenges associated with water quality and climate impacts.
Alongside her scientific accomplishments Maya is also the mother of two little kids, a wife, sister and daughter and friend to many, including several of us in the WWU Geology department. Maya achieved heroism through not only her scientific contributions, but also through her ability to balance care-giving roles with mentoring, and efforts toward facilitating social resilience. Maya died last year while conducting field work in the Arctic – sampling meltwater on a Greenland glacier while leading a team of students and scientific collaborators. The example Maya set as a conscientious and dedicated climate scientist, and contributor to her community reminds me to appreciate those around me who are heroically contributing to our science and community-centered goals every day.
Written by: Dr. Emily Roland rolande2@wwu.edu
Sources:
Dr. Bhatia’s Google Scholar Site:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=s8Gbi0YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://www.whoi.edu/multimedia/fishing-for-carbon/
https://cmosarchives.ca/Awards/SCORAward/Myers_Bhatia2021.html
Link to paper on female scientists with contributions from Dr. Bhatia:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01297/full
Figure 1: Dr. Bhatia out in the field.
Figure 2: Maya Bhatia (Second on the left) with her colleagues.
Figure 1: Marie Tharp (1920-2006) (loc.gov)
Figure 2: Heinrich Brennans Painting of the Tharp-Heezen map of the world (loc.gov)
Written by: Carlos Jimenez-Diaz -jimenec2@wwu.edu
Author notes: I highly recommend reading her article “Connect the Dots: Mapping the Seafloor and Discovering the Mid-ocean Ridge.” https://www.whoi.edu/news-insights/content/marie-tharp/If you have any suggestions for any other geology heroes please send me an email!
Author notes: I highly recommend reading her article “Connect the Dots: Mapping the Seafloor and Discovering the Mid-ocean Ridge.” https://www.whoi.edu/news-insights/content/marie-tharp/If you have any suggestions for any other geology heroes please send me an email!
Geo-Heroes #1
Geo-Heroes #1
Marie Tharp (1920-2006)
It would not be an overstatement to call Marie Tharp one of the most important figures in the field of Geology, but in her time, she was often dismissed. In the 50s, Geology was at a point where plate tectonics was a divisive theory. In 1952, Tharp used sonar data from multiple naval ships collected during World War II to map the ocean floors bathymetry (by hand!). What she discovered while creating this map would lead to evidence that would solidify continental drift as the leading hypothesis for the current configuration of the continents. After presenting her idea of the ocean floor being pulled apart, a fellow scientist who preferred the Expanding Earth theory called her explanation “girl talk.” Thanks to her hard work and perseverance to push through in a field all too ready to dismiss her, Marie Tharp presented us with work that shaped the field of Geology to this day. When she published her work in 1965, it was credited and published under her colleague’s name. Thankfully, she was later recognized and credited as well as awarded by the Library of Congress as one of the four greatest cartographers of the 20th century.
Sources:
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/08/marie-tharp-mapping-the-ocean-floor/
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/07/24/marie-tharp-connecting-dots/
https://marietharp.ldeo.columbia.edu/about-marie-tharp
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