Maria Waller
Instructor in Geosciences Laboratory
B.A., Wellesley College; M.S., University of Massachusetts
1. What made you want to become a scientist?
I am a geologist—someone who studies what the earth is made of, what is happening inside the earth and on its surface, what the earth was like in the past and how it will be in the future. I can’t say that I ever made the conscious decision to become a scientist, but I have always loved to explore the world around me. I have vivid memories of wading up a creek in my neighborhood when I was a kid, collecting crawdads and rocks that I found on the channel bottom. I left the crawdads behind but took the rocks home. I learned to identify them and wanted to learn more about them. And that’s also how I felt when I’d hear about volcanic eruptions or people exploring caves or new fossil discoveries. When I got to college I was finally able to take a course in geology. It was fascinating. I just wanted to keep learning more. So I took more courses, worked on research projects and haven’t really looked back. I currently teach geology to college students.
2. How can we convince other women to become scientists?
Expose girls to scientific pursuits as early and often as possible. The more familiar and comfortable they are with observing the world around them and thinking about how things work, the more likely they will be to think of themselves as potential scientists. I think that sometimes women who would enjoy and be good at working in science simply don’t think of this as something they could do. And that’s something we should work to change.
3. How can we highlight underrepresented scientists?
This is something that I haven’t thought a lot about. I imagine that the more often we all see underrepresented scientists in the mix with everyone else, the more likely we will all think that it is normal. And I think that this is the goal I would aim for. So I am not sure that I would choose to highlight underrepresented scientists as much as to make sure that they are in the public eye as much as and along with all other scientists.
-ABF
Instructor in Geosciences Laboratory
B.A., Wellesley College; M.S., University of Massachusetts
1. What made you want to become a scientist?
I am a geologist—someone who studies what the earth is made of, what is happening inside the earth and on its surface, what the earth was like in the past and how it will be in the future. I can’t say that I ever made the conscious decision to become a scientist, but I have always loved to explore the world around me. I have vivid memories of wading up a creek in my neighborhood when I was a kid, collecting crawdads and rocks that I found on the channel bottom. I left the crawdads behind but took the rocks home. I learned to identify them and wanted to learn more about them. And that’s also how I felt when I’d hear about volcanic eruptions or people exploring caves or new fossil discoveries. When I got to college I was finally able to take a course in geology. It was fascinating. I just wanted to keep learning more. So I took more courses, worked on research projects and haven’t really looked back. I currently teach geology to college students.
2. How can we convince other women to become scientists?
Expose girls to scientific pursuits as early and often as possible. The more familiar and comfortable they are with observing the world around them and thinking about how things work, the more likely they will be to think of themselves as potential scientists. I think that sometimes women who would enjoy and be good at working in science simply don’t think of this as something they could do. And that’s something we should work to change.
3. How can we highlight underrepresented scientists?
This is something that I haven’t thought a lot about. I imagine that the more often we all see underrepresented scientists in the mix with everyone else, the more likely we will all think that it is normal. And I think that this is the goal I would aim for. So I am not sure that I would choose to highlight underrepresented scientists as much as to make sure that they are in the public eye as much as and along with all other scientists.
-ABF