University of South Florida

USF College of Marine Science

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Why Don’t the Geosciences Have More Diversity?

Credit: Christopher Kimmel, Getty Images

Credit: Christopher Kimmel, Getty Images

Written By:  Michelle Guitard

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – When I walk into a scientific meeting or conference, I often ask myself: how many underrepresented minorities (URMs) representing American institutions do I see?

I am a Ph.D. candidate in marine science. My concentration is geological oceanography and my research field is paleoceanography, the study of the world’s oceans on geologic timescales. I am also Latina. At scientific meetings, I am surrounded by scientists of every variety: geochemists, physical oceanographers, and glaciologists, to name a few. The range of expertise is extensive, but the goal is the same: to understand how Earth has changed over hundreds to billions of years. However, while I see great diversity in disciplines and sub-disciplines, I often see very little racial and ethnic diversity.

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