Robert J. Stern is Professor of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1982. He grew up in Oroville, a small town in northern California. He received his undergraduate training at the University of California at Davis and his PhD at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego. He carried out post-doctoral studies at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, and has been a visiting scholar at Stanford U., Caltech, and ETH Zurich. He teaches undergraduate courses in Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology, Geoscience Animations and Videos, and Geography, Resources, and Environment of Latin America and graduate courses in Tectonics and Sustainable Energy. He is handicapped (mobility-impaired). When he was younger, he studied the Neoproterozoic evolution of the Arabian-Nubian Shield and the submarine geology of the Mariana convergent margin system. Today, his research focuses on understanding how subduction zones and convergent margin magmatic systems form and evolve, the geotectonic evolution of NE Africa, Arabia, and Iran, and the evolution of Plate Tectonics. He is currently helping to develop the emerging multidisciplinary field of Biogeodynamics, which investigates the coupling between geodynamic processes, atmosphere, ocean, landscape, climate and the evolution of life. More information can be found on his Google Scholar profile and on his Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Stern ). He is director of the UTD Global and Magmatic Laboratory and UTD Geoscience Studios, co-director of the Permian Basin Research Lab, and co-director of the UTD Geosciences Micro-Imaging Lab. He has been Editor-in-Chief of International Geology Review since 2013. He is a Fellow of GSA, AGU, and AAAS.
My name is Kolisa Sinyanya a PhD researcher in Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. I'm passionate about making science an inclusive, diverse and inviting industry. My interests strongly involve science communication, teaching about my science and learning more about other science fields.
Lora Harris (she/her) is an estuarine ecologist who applies field and modeling approaches to address questions regarding biogeochemistry, metabolism and ecosystem structure in a range of coastal settings. Some of her most recent work involves collaboration with engineers to understand restoration trajectories of hypoxic estuaries, and the contribution of wastewater to estuarine receiving waters. Dr. Harris works closely with state and regional agencies in both a research and advisory capacity. She is committed to efforts that increase diversity in the geosciences as a founding principal investigator of Centro TORTUGA, an institutional collaboration based in Puerto Rico that is focused on exposing first year undergraduates to the marine sciences. TORTUGA is also a component in the NSF INCLUDES supported SEAS Islands Alliance, where Dr. Harris leads the Puerto Rico Hub. Additional work focused on broadening participation has included the NSF GOLD program’s ASPIRE project, membership of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation’s Broadening Participation Council, the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Diversity Workgroup, and involvement in her own institution’s efforts at institutional change. Dr. Harris is committed to community engagement, and takes just as much satisfaction in talking about water quality to a Board of County Commissioners as she does in giving a talk at a scientific conference. She received her B.A. from Smith College and her Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Harris moved to her faculty position at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science following a postdoctoral position at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.
I am the Curator of Geology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, where I have been since 1999. I hold degrees in Biology (B.Sc.), Oceanography (M.S.) and Geology (Ph.D.). My research is transdisciplinary, with a focus on understanding the evolution of ecological systems, emphasizing paleontology, deep time, and perspectives on systems dynamics. Most of my research these days centers around global biogeospheric change , and how we can further develop our understanding of Earth's past ecosystems to better forecast our future.
I was born in the United Kingdom, and grew up in the beautiful countries of Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of California Davis, and later became a citizen of the United States. I am a strong supporter of immigrants, broad inclusivity of all persons in American society, and the promotion of groups underrepresented and marginalized in the sciences, particularly on the bases of ethnicity and gender identity.