Episode 25: No universal path to becoming an Earth scientist

This week Joyce speaks with Dr. Zoë McKellar. Zoë is the managing editor at Stallard Scientific Editing. After receiving her MA in music, she worked a long list of jobs including McDonald's manager, musician, medical administrator, insurance, and many others. While coordinating employment medicals for petroleum geologists in Aberdeen, Scotland, she decided to go back to school and get her BS in geology and petroleum geology and afterwards earned her PhD in Geology at the University of Aberdeen. Zoë is actively working and publishing in Earth science and volunteers in several science outreach ventures, including House of Science.

In this episode we discuss her circuitous route to geosciences, what she learned working in large corporate environments, barriers to becoming a geoscientist from a class, mobility, and monetary standpoint (and in particular how field work and field camps can end up prohibiting participation in geoscience for some individuals), and much more.

You can connect with Zoë on twitter @PalaeoSeds, or on linkedin. You can see some of her work (and pretty figures) in this open access article.

Music by:

DJ Williams - 75 & Lower