Research Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes diverse leaders from around the world, 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 any other identity you feel comfortable sharing.

Growing up in a Europe with essentially no borders, having the freedom to travel and work wherever I wanted, and a being part of multicultural communities, I have always felt at home in diverse and global environments. Moving to the U.S. has opened my eyes to institutional racism, and now I am an active member of Berkeley Lab's Unlearning Racism in Geosciences (URGE) group, where we are trying our best to make our workplace a more welcoming and safe environment for people from all backgrounds. This urge to aim for a more inclusive and welcoming society is something that I will bring to AGU.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

Since 2018 - Member AGU Hydrogeophysics Technical Committee; Since 2021 - Member AGU Near-Surface Geophysics Executive Committee (Web editor & Program Committee); Since 2018 - Volunteer “Groundwater relief” - Charity providing hydrogeological and groundwater expertise to support humanitarian efforts ; Associate editor: Near Surface Geophysics (since 2019) and Journal of Applied Geophysics (since 2021)

As one of the elected leaders of your section, how will you partner with your president and president-elect to communicate with and engage your members to help implement AGU’s strategic plan including its mission and vision?

AGU is a community that strives to promote Earth science discoveries and solutions to 21st century societal challenges. Within the Near-Surface Geophysics community, a considerable part of our work focuses on groundwater processes, clean energy, natural hazards, or cultural discoveries, and hence has a direct impact on the communities we work with. That is why our work is also often part of projects that serve humanitarian causes, as can be seen in various Geoscientists without Borders projects, the Thriving Earth Exchange, or other projects with nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners. As the secretary of the Near-Surface Geophysics section, I will try to engage more of our members to share their stories and highlight them in our member communications, since providing active change and bringing solutions to communities is a great way to inspire, educate and empower the next generation of near-surface geophysicist.

Section affiliations:

Hydrology; Natural Hazards; Near Surface Geophysics