Dr. Katherine Boggs - Geoscientist

 Why did you become a scientist?  What drew you to this field?

I am fascinated by the processes that formed the Earth beneath our feet. My family growing up did a lot of camping and hiking. I collected a lot of rocks to bring home for my collections. My Mom would let them sit for awhile and then would "clean" house and they would disappear. I forgot about my interest in rocks and minerals until I rediscovered this passion for geology in a course in my second year of university. I love working towards improving our understanding of the processes that formed our planet and the processes that continue influencing our everyday lives. Humanity has one planet and it is important to us.

What have you been doing in your job most recently? 

I am fascinated by the processes that formed the Earth beneath our feet. My family growing up did a lot of camping and hiking. I collected a lot of rocks to bring home for my collections. My Mom would let them sit for awhile and then would "clean" house and they would disappear. I forgot about my interest in rocks and minerals until I rediscovered this passion for geology in a course in my second year of university. I love working towards improving our understanding of the processes that formed our planet and the processes that continue influencing our everyday lives. Humanity has one planet and it is important to us.

What kind of research do you do?

My graduate school research trained me to be a metamorphic petrologist, which are the geologists that study the stories that rocks tell us about their voyage from deep within our planet to the surface where we can study them today. Metamorphism produces some beautiful rocks and minerals such as diamonds that have significant economic value. Through EON-ROSE my research scope has expanded to promoting the idea to make Canada a global leader in Earth System Science by creating the capacity to use those Earth System Observatories to monitor entire Earth Systems. Through EON-ROSE I have taken a leadership role in developing the education and outreach programs (Community Science Liaison program) intended to engage all Canadian communities into place- and curriculum-based Citizen Science research projects that run parallel to the EON-ROSE scientific programs. Then because our Geology Major program does not have a planetary geology course, I also coordinate a geological mapping project on Venus using the NASA Magellan mission data.

What is the coolest thing about your work/research?

Travel, explore our planet, and meet the people of our planet!! I am fortunate to be able to travel both to conferences and to do fieldwork. The Chinese paid my way to Beijing for a conference, the Americans paid my way to Alaska and Colorado for workshops - to present my research and information about EON-ROSE. While I love to meet people from other countries I particularly enjoy exploring our country. Because it is impossible for any one person to model entire Earth Systems, collaboration is critical for the EON-ROSE research initiative. These collaborations are incredibly powerful and have involved very steep learning curves which have been fascinating.

What excites you about your work?

The potential for improving how we understand how our planet functions. The synergy possible when collaborating across disciplines that don't normally talk to each other is mind-blowing. For example, fluid dynamics are a common theme between space physics, atmospheric physics, numerical weather modeling, oceanography, and studying the semi-molten magma in the Earth's mantle (the layer under the solid crust). My personal steep learning curve involved in learning about space physics, numerical weather modeling, neotectonics (active earthquake-producing faults), tomography (the use of long waves from earthquakes to image discontinuities deep within the planet), and what is involved in getting a multi-million dollar research program started up has been an incredible journey. Then, taking these complex subjects and distilling them to projects achievable by school-aged children is very challenging but so much fun!

What advice would you give to someone thinking of a career in science?

Go for it! Seize every opportunity that you have to explore our planet. Get out there, talk to scientists, go to conferences, visit universities (when we can again), talk to professors and students. Visit science centres, attend public talks hosted by universities. Don't be intimidated by anything or anyone as all scientists started from a blank slate at one point.