University Director of Learning and Teaching, and Associate Professor, Northumbria University Newcastle, Newcastle, United Kingdom

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and anything else you feel comfortable sharing.

I would like to bring my international perspectives across science and education and across academia and industry into the role.
Being born and growing up in Hong Kong, I am an academic based in the U.K. and treasure the privilege of working in partnership with colleagues and communities from a wide range of countries in both education and interdisciplinary sciences.

As a seismologist, I have led international research initiatives across ocean, geological, planetary and solar sciences. With a background as a research geophysicist in an international company, I have experience in industry-academia research consortia linking discovery and solution-based sciences. I am also an educator and scholar who has contributed to the development of research-education linkages and transdisciplinary practices with academics and students at international levels. As a University Director of Learning and Teaching with a responsibility for inclusive education, I am passionate about fostering inclusive learning communities and championing knowledge co-creation and sharing in different cultural contexts.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

Member: AGU Education Advisory Group for forming the AGU Education section (as a new transdisciplinary section) (2017–18); Inaugural Secretary: AGU Education section (2018-22); Primary Convener: Union Session series on inclusive knowledge co-creation and community engagement (in partnership with Japan Geoscience Union and European Geosciences Union) (2020-present); Panel member: AGU Position Statements on international science education (2021); Chair: Excellence in Earth and Space Science Education Selection Committee (AGU Union Award in Education) (2024-25)

AGU’s strategic plan recognizes our community is diverse and global, and calls for empowering broad and inclusive partnerships to help solve society’s most complex challenges. How will you foster and strengthen global relationships to further AGU’s values, vision, mission, and goals?

My guiding principle is to identify, create and enhance the connections with and between our members and partners from around the world – such that international perspectives are embedded across AGU. Building on my leadership experience at AGU, I will work closely with colleagues, members, and other leading experts to enhance our engagement efforts and participatory approaches for furthering AGU’s values, vision, mission, and goals. I would like to deepen our partnerships with students and early-career colleagues from different cultural backgrounds to advance the inclusion agenda together.

To help realize AGU’s vision and mission, we need to strengthen the position of AGU’s role in shaping the research-education agenda for addressing global challenges – through promoting the interlinkages across research and educational endeavors beyond disciplinary boundaries. It is important to engage with transnational policymakers and international organizations to amplify the impact across education, discovery science, and solution-based research. It is also vital to highlight the diversity of perspectives, including those from the Indigenous and underrepresented communities, and celebrate their contributions to knowledge creation and sharing in different international settings.

We have a good volunteering platform for advancing the strategic goals and values together. We need to build on this and make our members and partners from diverse cultural backgrounds feel more welcome to contribute to a wider range of AGU initiatives – through developing sustained engagement, articulating the impact of their individual and collective efforts, and helping connect networks across local, regional, and international levels.

Section affiliations:

Education; Near Surface Geophysics; Ocean Sciences; Seismology; Space Physics and Aeronomy; Tectonophysics; Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology