Cleaning up Florida’s Beaches with NSU SWMS

Leadership and members of the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) chapter of SWMS came together on a beautiful Sunday morning on November 19th to make a difference in the local community and for the world’s ocean. The crew was armed with gloves, buckets, sunglasses and sunscreen for a morning of trash collection and getting to know each other; the perfect first event for the newly formed chapter! 

The NSU SWMS team combs the beach for debris!

NSU’s Oceanographic Campus is located within walking distance to the beach in Hollywood, Florida, and oftentimes students and employees spend breaks between classes and work walking over to the beach. Unfortunately, there is always trash to be picked up along these walks, and this is what inspired the NSU SWMS chapter to organize a beach cleanup as the first chapter event! So many, and probably all, people are in the field of marine science because they love the marine environment and want to spend their lives learning about it, protecting it, and conserving the biodiversity that it supports. Participating in a beach cleanup is not only an amazing opportunity to be at the front-lines of marine conservation, it’s also fun! Being located in beautiful South Florida, most of the NSU SWMS chapter and community already spend a lot of time at the beach, so what better way to spend time hanging at the beach with new friends, than simultaneously doing something great for the environment!

On first glance, the beach appeared spotless, and the crew wondered if any trash would even be collected. Low and behold, as NSU SWMS continued to comb the beach, trash ranging from microplastics and fishing line to bottles and cans was found throughout the beach. One of the most interesting pieces of trash found was a pair of doll sunglasses! Most of the trash found consisted of plastic, including straws, small pieces of brittle plastic, cups, straws, and wrappers, and was found blown away from the ocean and close to lifeguard stations and the sea oats. Beachgoers, lifeguards, and passersby wholeheartedly thanked the team for their dedication to collecting trash, and some even threw in a piece of trash or two themselves. 

Chapter members share all the trash they found!

The group spent about two hours collecting trash, separating into smaller teams going north and south along Hollywood Beach. The weather was perfectly sunny and countless invaluable conversations flowed between club members about their master’s projects, labs they’re involved in, favorite marine animals… The list goes on and on. The creation of the NSU SWMS chapter has been a great way for NSU students to connect with people from different research areas and learn about some of the other great research being conducted within the NSU community, as well as create new friendships with other like-minded scientists. After successfully filling ten buckets of trash, the team ended the cleanup with a rewarding picnic. Everyone shared sandwiches, chips, and stories as they got to know each other and bonded over their love of the beach, ocean, and environment! 

Trash collection information was reported to NOAA via the Marine Debris App (https://debristracker.org/), which was a simple and effective process to track marine debris for anyone hosting beach cleanups. Knowing more about the different types and amounts of debris found on a beach, or even on your street, can be the first step towards preventing it. In order to learn more about the problem and understand the types and amount of marine debris in our environment, we need to collect data. Debris Tracker is designed to help citizen scientists or in this case, professional scientists,  make a difference by contributing data on pollution in our community. It’s a user-friendly app that allows you to categorize the types, sizes, and approximate quantities of different marine debris. The first NSU SMWS was a great success and the chapter is looking forward to many more events! 

NSU’s beach clean up was organized by Breanna Vanderplow and Megan Miller. The post written by Breanna Vanderplow and edited by SWMS Comms Lead Katie Gallagher.

Exploring Orca Basin

As I gaze at the sapphire-blue water surrounding our vessel, I know that just 2 kilometers below me is one of our planet’s harshest environments: an ancient basin full of salt and toxic gases. Also called “Pools of Death”, deep hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) are unique seafloor features where salinity increases to 10 times that of seawater and oxygen concentrations approach zero. These environments are cold, dark, and pressure is greater than 200 times that at the ocean’s surface. Deep-sea animals that swim into DHABs are poisoned by hydrogen sulfide and methane gases before being pickled and preserved by the salty brine. Despite these extremes, the top layers of the basin are thought to be hotspots of microbial activity.

Image 1. Photos of the video captured on the ROV camera. A) The murky transition layer between normal seawater and hypersaline brine in Orca Basin. B) Sediment core taken by the ROV at a depth of ~2400 meters and salinity 10 times that of seawater. Images by Veronica Hegelein.

Some consider these basins analogous to other ocean worlds, like the briny moons of Jupiter and Saturn. As a part of the NASA-funded Oceans Across Space and Time (OAST) team, I had the opportunity to sample Orca Basin—a 400 km2 DHAB in the Gulf of Mexico—during Summer 2023. During our twelve days aboard the R/V Pt Sur, our team of 13 scientists and engineers conducted 21 CTD casts and 11 dives with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) upon which 10 sediment cores were collected from deep within the basin. I spent most of my time (sometimes up to 10 hours a day!) in the cold van (~4°C), where my microbial samples would not be exposed to the heat and humidity of the Gulf during summer. This meant donning a beanie and jacket despite it being hotter than 80°F outside. Since we also want to do our best to keep the environmental conditions the same as they are in situ, this also meant that the cold van was kept dark to mimic the deep-sea. We took all of these steps, and I spent a lot of time in the cold, dark van, so that we could reduce the impact of experimental set-up on the microbes’ activity levels.

Image 2. The ROV, named the “Global Explorer” (Oceaneering), that was used to sample the basin. Image by Veronica Hegelein.

We spent Fourth of July onboard, which required wearing star-shaped glasses during our daily activities and included a delicious steak and lobster dinner from David, our cruise chef. During my free time, I made T-shirts and organized an awards ceremony for the crew and science team with superlatives written on shrunken Styrofoam cups. When Styrofoam is placed under the extreme pressure of the deep-sea, it shrinks, creating decorated cruise souvenirs ranging from colorful cups to shrunken Styrofoam heads. A little morale-boosting fun goes a long way on a multi-week cruise!

Image 3. Emily Paris with the WOLF NanoCellect Cell Sorter in the cold van (4°C) onboard. Image by Jeff Bowman
Image 4. Shrunken octopus made from a Styrofoam cup and the high pressure of the deep-sea.

I am fortunate that this was not my first cruise. I am part of a deep-sea microbiology lab, so it was assumed (but not guaranteed!) that I would get to go on a cruise at some point during my PhD at Stanford University. In graduate school, I’ve gone on three cruises ranging from one day to two weeks, with a fourth planned for next summer. It’s not something I sought out when applying to my graduate program, but rather something that just came with the task of studying the deep-sea. If people are in labs that do not frequently participate in cruises but want to participate, sometimes cruises will have extra berths available for collaborators to join, so if you are interested in getting on a scientific cruise yourself, you could look for similar opportunities! I have also reached out to collaborators on other cruises asking for them to collect specific samples for me, which is another way to get precious samples that could otherwise take a lot of time and money to collect!

Image 5. OAST graduate students sampling from one of the 21 CTD casts collected from Orca Basin. Image by Jeff Bowman.
Image 6. Graduate students Chad Pozarycki (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Emily Paris (Stanford University) celebrating Fourth of July by preparing to send a CTD cast equipped with “shrunken cup superlatives” overboard while wearing star-shaped, red-white-and-blue glasses. Image by Jeff Bowman

While each scientist onboard had a different project, my goal on this cruise was to understand how compounding environmental stressors impact the efficiency of various microbial metabolisms. This is important for quantifying nutrient cycling and predicting shifts in the face of global environmental change, as well as for planning life detection missions on other planets. We were lucky to have a WOLF NanoCellect cell sorter on the cruise, which allowed me to separate metabolically active from inactive cells at various depths within the brine and preserve their DNA for sequencing. These samples will allow me to explore what adaptations allow a cell to survive as an environment becomes more extreme.

Image 7. The Oceans Across Space and Time field team after twelve long days at sea donning T-shirts made onboard. Left to Right & Front to Back: Jeff Bowman, Emily Paris, Carley Ross, Veronica Hegelein, Ellery Ingall, Andy Mullen, Steffen Buessecker, Jordan McKaig, Cathryn Sephus, Chad Pozarycki, Miguel Desmarais, Clair Elbon, and Matt Meister.

This project was funded by NASA grants 80NSSC18K1301 and 80NSSC22K1409. We would like to thank Britney Schmidt and the entire Oceans Across Space and Time team (field: J. S. Bowman, E. D. Ingall, S. Buessecker, C. Pozarycki, C. Ross, M. Desmarais, C. Elbon, C. Sephus, J. McKaig, M. Meister, A. Mullen, and V. Hegelein) as well as my P.I., Anne E. Dekas (Stanford University) and members of the Dekas Lab. I would also like to thank Mike, Jason, and Nate from Oceaneering, the crew of the R/V Pt Sur, as well as our collaborators at Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

Written by Emily R. Paris

Edited by Katie Gallagher, SWMS Communications Lead

Futures in the Field

On April 26th 2023, the Monterey Bay chapter of SWMS hosted a Preventing Sexual Harassment in Field Settings workshop with the non-profit, FieldFutures. FieldFutures aims to make fieldwork safe for everyone. The workshop focused on harassment prevention by discussing topics including how to identify, address and play a role in halting sexual harassment. Participants benefited from learning prevention strategies from the workshop facilitator, Alison Payne, while also partaking in group discussions to examine their roles in thwarting harassment. Attendees left feeling more confident in their ability to identify, intervene, and report issues of harassment. Addressing how sexual harassment and assault threatens the involvement of many vulnerable communities is necessary in ensuring that, as a community, we are promoting equitable and safe field settings for all. 

Monterey Bay SWMS at their FieldFutures workshop on April 23rd 2023

FieldFutures was founded in 2018 by Drs. Melissa Cronin and Erika Zavaleta. Using evidence-based techniques, they provide field-specific training for research teams of all sizes from individuals to entire agencies. Unfortunately, FieldFutures’ work comes from a need to reduce harassment in field work. Over half of researchers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields report being harassed and 20% have reported some form of assault while conducting field work (Clancy et al 2014). This idea recently came to the forefront of many institutions and departments with the release of the documentary Picture a Scientist premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. This critically acclaimed documentary illuminated the issue of prevalent harassment in field work situations and in geosciences specifically. The film follows the story of Dr. Jane Willenburg, a geology professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. Willenburg was harassed by a supervisor in the field in Antarctica, and only reported her harasser after being awarded tenure. Her harasser was eventually removed from their institution. 

Dr. Willenburg’s story is, unfortunately, all too common in STEM fields, especially in  marine science. Marine scientists and oceanographers often report harassment in locations such as remote field sites or oceanographic cruises. According to a 2021 report by Women in Ocean Science, over 75% of survey participants were sexually harassed, with most reporting harassment in the field (Ackerman et al., 2023). Field work is often an instructional and formative experience, especially for early career scientists. Therefore, harassment and assault in the field is one of the major barriers to build inclusive marine science, geoscience, and broader STEM communities. As marine scientists, we should actively educate ourselves and our colleagues through programming such as those offered by FieldFutures or content such as Picture a Scientist to the pervasiveness of harassment in field work settings. Only by educating ourselves and our coworkers on the issues and holding those responsible accountable for their actions, will we be able to build more inclusive field work experiences for all. 

To learn more about FieldFutures, or to request a workshop, go to FieldFutures.Org

Sources:

https://www.fieldfutures.org/mission

 Clancy KBH, Nelson RG, Rutherford JN, Hinde K (2014) Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault. PLoS ONE 9(7): e102172. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102172

https://www.pictureascientist.com/

Ackerman, A., K. Yarincik, S. Murphy, I. Cetinić, A. Fundis, A. Miller, E. Shroyer, A. Busse, Q. Covington, A. DeSilva, A. Haupt, L. Johnson, C. Lee, L. Lorenzoni, B. Murphy, J. Ramarui, B. Rosenheim, and D. Steinberg. 2023. Know before you go: A community-derived approach to planning for and preventing sexual harassment at oceanographic field sites. Oceanography 36(1):38–43, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2023.112

Written by Katie Gallagher (SWMS Communications Lead) and Alex Stella (Monterey Bay SWMS)

Full STEAM Ahead

What one marine sci-artist is doing to inspire careers in science, technology, engineering, art, and maths

Full STEAM Ahead is a blog by SWMS‘ guest author Karen Romano Young

My baseball hat has an embroidered wave on the front. It sits atop a styrofoam wig form that doesn’t know what’s about to hit it. Any day now, it’s headed (ha) for a mesh laundry bag zip- tied to Alvin — and when it comes back, my hat will completely engulf it, not perch atop.

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Alvin

The cap and wig form sit on the windowsill of a porthole opening out onto the Caribbean Sea. Aboard R/V Atlantis, we’re chugging along the north coast of Jamaica, on a three-day transit from San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Cayman Islands — drawing a line of wake between the deepest points of the Atlantic (the Puerto Rico Trench) and the Caribbean (the Mid-Cayman Trough).

Research Vessel Atlantis – Karen’s home in the Caribbean Sea

On board with me are 50-odd scientists; Alvin engineers, electricians, and pilots; and the Atlantis crew who run the ship and the operations that take us to the deep sea. Deeper, in fact, than ever before, for Alvin, which has just been certified to 6500 meters. Before, it could take humans up to 4500m deep — about 2/3 of the seafloor. With this brand-new certification, we’ve got access to 99 % of the seafloor. My expedition’s job is science verification: making sure that Alvin is able to gather the data — samples, photos, videos, and — so importantly, human observations — that science needs. So what am I doing here?

Telling the stories of Alvin and the people who work with this amazing submersible that has been the vehicle for so many discoveries. In words and pictures. Mostly comics.

I’m serious. I’m part of the team, and comics are part of the outreach, not only telling the plot of of our experiences here, but showcasing the characters involved, in hope of making the field more accessible.

For years, I’ve used my #AntarcticLog comic series to tell stories about scientific research. The biggest thing that I’ve learned during that time is the need in science for more viewpoints — not just the human-occupied vehicle viewpoints provided by Alvin, but the perspectives of people of every gender, background, ability, experience, and gift. There is room for all — and, especially in deep-sea science, so much to learn about our world and other ocean worlds in our solar system and beyond. And it’s evident that kids adore the ocean, its vehicles and its biodiversity. How do we get them from there to… here?

My answer — in progress, in proof of concept — is I Was A Kid. My new project has the goal of helping kids 8 to 18 see their way into science, technology, engineering, arts, and math fields like this one. Through sharing multimedia profiles of people already in those fields who represent a cross-section of skillsets, I Was A Kid routes the variety of pathways — bumps, obstructions, dead ends and all — that got them where they are, using comics, graphics, photos, and text.


Find out more at IWasAKid.com, and follow at @iwasakidSTEAM.

ELECTIONS SPOTLIGHT

Chrissy Hernandez of Cornell is our current president. She has shared with us why she enjoys being on the steering committee in this second elections spotlight.

We will also be holding SWMS Drop-in “Office Hours” on Zoom: Thursday January 27, 1-2pm Eastern Time

The SWMS President, Chrissy Hernandez, will be available to chat and answer questions about the upcoming elections and any SWMS programs. We are actively recruiting for the positions of President, Secretary, and Director. Come find out if one of those is right for you!

If that time does not work with your schedule and you’d like to chat with Chrissy, please e-mail chernandez@whoi.edu to set up another time. Or send her a DM on Slack!

Zoom link:

https://cornell.zoom.us/j/91880927720?pwd=MElkb0ZzMmh5Vkg4dE91MDkveDJpUT09

You can find out more about our elections here: Steering Committee Elections

Celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride with SWMS and Erin Jones

Erin Jones stands on the deck of a research vessel with the sea and sunset behind her

Join us as we celebrate LGBTQ+ pride!

We love how many perspectives our members can offer. We think that’s one of our strengths as a community that we offer t o marine science! Acknowledging and celebrating your individual experiences and identities is a really important way we can support you.

This is work we do year round, but in honor of Pride History Month we ‘sat down,’ from various corners of the planet, with Erin Jones (she/her). Erin is a PhD student of biological oceanography at GSO with Tatiana Rynearson. Below you will learn about her intersecting identities and the valuable science she is conducting!

Introduce Yourself!

I am a queer marine scientist in the 3rd year of my PhD at GSO in the Rynearson Lab studying the role of microzooplankton community structure and diversity in carbon export pathways.

Erin is smiling at the camera and wears a dark blue sweatshirt as she poses for her headshot.
Erin Jones, GSO URI (2019)

In particular, I am interested in how shifts in diversity of heterotrophic and mixotrophic protists influence grazing patterns through the water column. My research is part of the NASA EXPORTS project, for which I recently returned from a month-long cruise to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic Ocean aboard the RRS James Cook.

a person kneels in the foreground working with a hose. plastic boxes on wooden pallets are arranged behind on a ship's deck. The person is working on the set up.
Erin hooking up the plumbing for microzooplankton grazing experiment incubations. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. 

EXPORTS, which stands for Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing, is a NASA-funded project that aims to develop a predictive understanding of the ocean’s carbon cycle.

How has your identity shaped your experience as a woman marine scientist?

Being a queer woman in marine science, I have thought a lot about how much representation matters to aspiring scientists. I wasn’t aware of any LGBTQ+ people growing up, let alone any in STEM.

Four individuals stand on the back deck of a research vessel facing the camera. They are wearing bright red lifejackets and face masks. The sun is setting over the sea behind.
 (From left to right) Erin Jones, Mikayla Cote, Dr. Pierre Marrec, Victoria Fulfer; aboard the R/V Endeavor for the NES-LTER Project, Fall 2020.

Without seeing your identity reflected in others, you are left to forge your own path; sink or swim.

A selfie of Erin as she stand next to a railing on the research vessel. She is wearing a white hard hat, red lifejacket, glasses, and a grey face mask
 Erin aboard the R/V Endeavor for the NES-LTER Project, Fall 2020

Being queer has shaped how I approach and participate in the marine science community, such as who I talk to, how I act at conferences, and whether I am “out” on research cruises. Broadly speaking, like many others I’ve had to learn to navigate the cisgender heteronormative patriarchy that exists at the core of the scientific community.

Despite the challenges I have faced along the way, I wouldn’t change who I am or the job I have; I’m queer and I’m a marine scientist.

How have you overcome the challenges posed by being a member of the LGBTQ+ community?

Challenges posed by being queer have been variable, but over time I’ve built up a network of allies, LGBTQ+ friends and colleagues, discovered more resources for being a queer woman in STEM (500 Queer Scientists), and continued to educate myself so that I can be a better mentor to other aspiring queer scientists and make it easier for them to find their way into the scientific community (Safe Zone Trainings).

Three people play cards in a lounge area. a small circular wooden table separates them. They are smiling.
(From left to right) Rynearson lab-mates Dr. Laura Holland, Diana Fontaine, and Erin Jones playing a game of Euchre during the EXPORTS cruise. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook.

Though the world continues to become more accepting of LGBTQ+ people, there is work to be done to make STEM more welcoming and supportive of queer identities. LGBTQ+ representation in schools, labs and at conferences has been vital for my development as a marine scientist.

I hope my queer visibility in the marine science shows other budding LGTBQ+ scientists that they are not alone, and they can be as much a part of the scientific community as anyone else.

Two individuals look away from the camera. One is seated on the left on the deck of a research vessel. The other stands leaning on the railing. The background is filled with a port.
Erin Jones (left) and Diana Fontaine (right) on the bow of the RRS James Cook as the ship returns to port in Southampton, UK. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook.

How have your support community and professional community overlapped?

Since joining GSO, my support community and professional community have overlapped substantially. My queer identity was not as visible in the past when I attempted to keep my queerness out of the lab.

Having an openly lesbian advisor has changed how I participate in the scientific community. By breaking out of the workplace “closet” I have become a better scientist, more engaged with my community and built stronger connections and supportive relationships with my lab and fellow students.

Four individuals stand turning their heads to look at the camera over their shoulders. They are in a busy lab working on the counter. Scientific equipment surrounds them.
Rynearson/Menden-Deuer Grazing Team (From left to right) Dr. Laura Holland, Dr. Heather McNair, Erin Jones, and Diana Fontaine collecting samples from microzooplankton grazing experiments. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. 

What else would you like people to know about you?!

  • I hail from Bainbridge Island, Washington, where I grew up surrounded by the marine environment of the Puget Sound. Unsurprisingly, this is where my curiosity for marine life kindled.

  • I attended Mount Holyoke College, a historically women’s college in western Massachusetts where I studied biology and marine science. At Mount Holyoke, I flourished as a queer woman in STEM, surrounded by a fiercely supportive community of students and professors.

  • Aside from marine science, I love spending my time cooking, biking, throwing pottery, and gardening.

Top Left: The crew and science party of the RRS James Cook celebrate Erin’s birthday during the EXPORTS cruise. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. 
Top Right: Erin Jones and Diana Fontaine on the RRS James Cook watching the sunrise over the North Atlantic ocean during EXPORTS. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. 
Bottom Left: Erin Jones on deck of RRS James Cook waiting for sunrise. NASA EXPORTS Cruise May 2021, North Atlantic Ocean, RRS James Cook. 
Bottom Middle: Erin Jones pictured with her girlfriend Lindsey after cooking Thanksgiving dinner 2020.
Bottom Right: Erin Jones admiring the Kinney Azalea Gardens, Kingston, RI  in Spring 2020.


If you are a woman in marine science and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, we’d love to hear from you! Please join us on social media June 24th 2021 as we celebrate LGBTQ+ pride and share your voice! Or pitch us a blog like Erin’s – you can find details here.

Introducing Ireland SWMS

Introducing Ireland SWMS! Our branch was born from a need to connect marine scientists in The Republic of Ireland, of all levels and backgrounds and create a progressive space to discuss important issues. As an island nation, we rely heavily on the marine industries. By creating an engaged networking community, we hope to support the marine science industry and bolster the success of female scientists. Though we’re starting small, with the help of all SWMS supporters, we expect to grow and connect scientists across the nation. Here are our co-founders sharing their unique experiences in the field.

Introducing Niamh: My name is Niamh Meyler, co-founder of the Irish chapter of SWMS.

Growing up near the Irish Sea, I had a love of the beach and of nature. When I was introduced by chance to the field of marine zoology, I knew I had found my dream career path that combined my passion and curiosity for animals, the ocean and discovery.

With Zoology as my chosen field of study, I enrolled in the National University of Ireland where I got my bachelor’s degree and solidified my interest in cnidarian ecology. After graduation, I worked as a Groundfish Observer where I trained at the NOAA/NMFS facility in Seattle and was assigned to different boats in Alaska to collect catch data.I continued my studies and I am currently doing an MSc. Marine Biology with Stockholm University with a focus on tropical coral disease epidemiology.

Introducing Aisha: Hello! My name is Aisha O’Connor, co-founder of the Irish chapter of SWMS.

It was during my transition year in secondary school when I first realised my passion for marine science. A late comer compared to some, but having not grown up by the sea and with nobody else in my family with a strong interest in the marine realm, it took the discovery of the Galapagos Islands through a geography project to ignite the marine fire inside of me. 

From there, I went on to complete a BSc in Marine Science at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) where I met Niamh, and continued my journey of discoveries when I was introduced to the wonderful world of seaweeds! And so flourished my passion for all things macroalgal-related. Since then I’ve had a bursary in the Aquaculture sector of the Marine Institute, Galway, worked as a research assistant in Alabama, US and Germany. Recently, I graduated with a MSc in Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I feel connected to the marine environment by more than an academic thread, I love to swim and snorkel in the sea and even SCUBA dive! Peering directly into a marine ecosystem keeps my passion burning. 

Throughout my studies to date, I did not experience much encouragement to pursue a career in marine science. Simultaneously, resources detailing the opportunities and possibilities that would open up with a degree in Marine Science were few and far between. That being said, Niamh and I are striving to change the narrative through our innovative work with Ireland SWMS. 

Our goals: We hope that Ireland SWMS will be successful in our pursuit to promote the visibility of women in marine science and help people connect with the experience of minorities in the field. Ireland SWMS dedicates itself to 

  1. provide support to young marine scientists in pursuing a marine career/studies and for networking
  2. provide resources to find marine-related internships and jobs in Ireland
  3. share knowledge from previous experiences in academia/industry/volunteering positions/etc.

We hope those who share the goals of this open and inclusive society feel empowered to join us. Together we can act to make the marine sector in Ireland a diverse and dynamic community to be part of. 

Niamh on the left and Aisha on the right chat on a Zoom call.

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Anchors Aweigh: Meet the Founders of SWMS

Credit: Erin Borbee, URI SWMS

In the spring of 2014, Dr. Alexis Yelton had the idea of organizing a meeting for women in marine science to foster professional connections between junior women in the field and senior women. Alexis had successfully acquired funding to support the event through her NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship. At the time, she was a post-doc in Dr. Penny Chisholm’s lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, USA, and labmate and PhD student Katya Moniz joined the effort of planning the meeting. They recruited Bethanie Edwards and Sophie Chu, both PhD students in the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) Joint Program, to help plan the event. The founders each held a variety of individual identities that coalesced around the shared identity of being a woman in marine science. Individual identities represented by the group of founders included multiple aspects of religion, ethnicity, motherhood, immigrant generation, and career stage. 

In September 2014, the first full-day SWMS Symposium was held at WHOI in Woods Hole, MA, USA. Attendees included people from the marine science field from the New England region. The keynote speaker of the event was Dr. Penny Chisholm. This first SWMS event was so well-received that the four founding members decided to continue and expand SWMS to create a wider community to support and advance women in marine science. As of December 2020, there have been seven additional SWMS Symposiums held, over 1800 individuals added to the email list, and 27 Chapters formed in the U.S. and internationally. Read on for reflections from the founders on their motivation for starting SWMS and their career updates. 

Alexis Yelton

Motivation to start SWMS: As an environmental microbiologist, I wanted to create an organization like SWMS because I wanted to find a way to connect with other women in academia. I was considering whether I wanted to pursue an academic career at the time and was concerned about my ability to have a family while focusing on my work. The lack of role models who had done just that was very clear to me, so I wanted to seek them out as well as introduce myself to a broader community of women in oceanography. 

Where you are now: Ultimately, I decided to leave academia, but I was incredibly happy to see that others saw SWMS as a valuable resource. I hope that it provided the support to women in the field that I had imagined. After leaving academia I pursued a career in data science, which has been a great fit for me. I am currently the Head of Data Science at a cybersecurity startup.

Katya Moniz

Motivation to start SWMS: As the mother of a 1-year-old and 3-year-old when I started graduate school, I was acutely aware of the extra challenges many women face in terms of balancing studies with being a primary caregiver at home. The fact that I couldn’t devote as much time to academics and research as other students in the program, and also the fact that I came from a largely non-science background, made it especially difficult to move past what I now know was impostor syndrome, which affects so many women in academia and particularly in science. My hope in creating the SWMS was to offer women in marine science a source of support and mentorship to help them thrive in science, whatever stage of their academic journey they were at. 

Where you are now: I’m the Research Lead in Eric Alm’s lab in Biological Engineering at MIT, where I’m involved in the Global Microbiome Conservancy project, and our wastewater-based epidemiology work, which is currently focused on monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bethanie Edwards

Motivation to start SWMS: When an email went out looking for grad students to help organize a symposium for women in marine science. I jumped at the opportunity to be involved; As an underrepresented minority in STEM, I knew building an inclusive community could really help diversify the field of oceanography and increase the visibility of women in marine science.  

Where you are now: I am now an assistant professor in the Earth and Planetary Science Department at UC-Berkeley. Using time-series sites and laboratory experiments, my lab group studies the impacts of various microbial interactions on carbon cycling in the ocean. My hope is to continue bringing scientists together from a wide range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, gender identities and orientations, and academic expertise to ask complex questions in a holistic manner. I currently serve on the inaugural SWMS Board of Directors.

Sophie Chu

Motivation to start SWMS: I was in a bit of a lull at the end of my 3rd year in grad school and was looking for some excitement. I had participated in a few women in science groups during college and had found talking to other women in STEM both validating and inspirational. Upon receiving Alexis’ email asking for help organizing the SWMS Symposium, I was excited at the opportunity to be part of this group to create a network and resource for women in marine science. I have grown both personally and professionally with the help of SWMS and its members and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Where you are now: I am currently a research scientist at the University of Washington/NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. My work primarily focuses on evaluating existing sensors and developing new technology to understand carbon cycling and ocean acidification. I am currently on the SWMS Steering Committee as a Chapter Liaison and the Seattle Chapter Steering Committee.

The Origins of SWMS

This is the first part in a series of reflections from the Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS) 2020 Steering Committee (SC) to increase the transparency of our internal discussions with our members and to interrogate how SWMS can ensure that anti-racist values are core to our newly-formed non-profit organization. We encourage feedback from SWMS members, advisors, and the marine science community on the ideas presented here and topics for future reflections. Feedback can be submitted as named or anonymous using this Google Doc, an email to swms.general.contact@gmail.com, a message on the SWMS Slack (#feedback-and-development channel), or a message to any SC member. 

Part I: The HERstory of SWMS and Current Growth

The Society for Women in Marine Science (SWMS) was founded by a diverse group of early-career women from male-dominated and predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Read more about the founders in this blog post. The founders each held a variety of individual identities that coalesced around the shared identity of being a woman in marine science. The creation of SWMS was motivated by the need for a network and formal resource platform for women in marine science. We would like to acknowledge our founders and their roles at the time SWMS was founded: Dr. Alexis Yelton, a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Dr. Katya Moniz, a graduate student at MIT; Dr. Bethanie Edwards, a graduate student in the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) Joint Program; and Dr. Sophie Chu, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program. These four women originally formed SWMS to organize a symposium for women in science, with the possibility of creating a network to help increase retention of women in academia. In 2014, they ran the first SWMS Symposium as a day-long event at WHOI. The event was primarily supported by funding from the broader impacts section of Dr. Alexis Yelton’s NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship. Since then, SWMS Symposia continue to be flagship events for the organization with one (and sometimes two) each year! As of December 2020 with the virtual SWMS Symposium organized by the University of Rhode Island (URI) SWMS Chapter, we will have held eight different SWMS Symposia reaching hundreds of attendees, supported by many university and corporate sponsors.

SWMS continues to grow in ways previously unimagined. In 2018, SWMS leadership was formalized through a Steering Committee of graduate students from MIT-WHOI and URI. The majority of the 2018-2020 SWMS Steering Committee is white-presenting cis women who are based at PWIs, which limits the breadth of perspectives and voices represented in and by SWMS. Additionally, we recognize that not all identities are evident from appearance, so we’ve shared our individual identities and journeys in marine science in some previous SWMS newsletters and blog posts. This Spring 2021, we will hold the first elections for the Steering Committee. We hope that these elections will be an opportunity to diversify and expand the representation of leaders on the Steering Committee. 

SWMS has attained legal standing as a non-profit organization with a Board of Directors using donations from a successful GoFundMe campaign. SWMS now runs with a modest budget, with currently a little over US$3,000 in the bank. To date, we have established over 20 SWMS Chapters around the globe, gained over 1800 individuals on our email list, drafted a research manuscript examining symposia surveys, and held events at international ocean conferences. In addition to these quantifiable accomplishments, we are especially encouraged by feedback from members that they found a new and positive sense of community within marine science through SWMS.

We recognize that our values and actions can mobilize our community in many ways, running the risk of upholding elements of the status quo, including white supremacy, anti-blackness, and colonialism. Instead, we commit to strive for justice in ways that center all marginalized groups within marine science. We are actively interrogating who has power, whose voice is being heard, and how we are all using the SWMS platform.

Similar to its start, SWMS has continued to be a grassroots organization that relies on volunteer leaders to run the group through the Steering Committee, Symposium Planning Committees, and Chapter Leads. SWMS leaders are graduate students and early-career professionals within five years of obtaining their last degree, which is central to our goal of providing leadership and career development opportunities to women to improve retention and success in marine science fields. As we become more formalized, we want to maintain the grassroots aspect in a way that advances intersectional feminism in marine science and promotes leadership by a large and diverse network of early-career marine scientists. With the growth of SWMS from 2014 to 2020, our sphere of influence is increasing, with a platform both within the US and internationally. Steering Committee leaders speak several times a year on international panels at scientific conferences and virtually. SWMS Chapters include high school focused groups like the chapter within Black Girls Dive Foundation, university-affiliated groups, regional chapters on the East and West coasts of the U.S., and international chapters in Brazil and Nigeria. SWMS Chapters are increasingly receiving funding and recognition for their community and scientific work with a growing number of SWMS events. SWMS is active on social media through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and has a community Slack channel. We recognize that our values and actions can mobilize our community in many ways, running the risk of upholding elements of the status quo, including white supremacy, anti-blackness, and colonialism. Instead, we commit to strive for justice in ways that center all marginalized groups within marine science. We are actively interrogating who has power, whose voice is being heard, and how we are all using the SWMS platform.

We’re grateful for the trust and continued engagement from the marine science community, and we recognize that the exciting development of SWMS has pointed out unexpected challenges and shortcomings along the way. Particularly, we have aspects of diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality within SWMS which we can improve upon and build up. We want to ensure that the current underlying principles and values of SWMS are clear to our members. Also, we wish to listen to our members about what principles and values are important to them and how SWMS can better support those. We find this particularly important to establish prior to the 2021 Steering Committee elections, and we look forward to new leaders bringing fresh perspectives and voices to SWMS through these leadership positions. 

Current areas of SWMS which we are reflecting upon, considering action steps, and seeking feedback include: 

Governance and transparency:

We are evaluating the creation of “SWMS Guiding Principles” to clarify SWMS principles for Chapters and members, who are the real-time agents of action and representatives of SWMS. We seek input about conducting the 2021 Steering Committee elections and how to best recruit future SWMS leaders from diverse backgrounds. We likewise believe it is vital to increase the transparency of Steering Committee discussions and decisions. 

Membership:

We are working to define what it means to be a SWMS member. We also are focused on how to ensure SWMS members are represented in leadership and decision-making. This requires us to learn how to gather data on membership demographics. As we recruit members, we want to make sure that SWMS is an organization that actively supports leadership by diverse early-career marine scientists and whose members come from diverse backgrounds.

Events:

An important goal is to increase the participation of diverse speakers and attendees at SWMS Symposia Chapter events and within local chapters. We are seeking input on best practices to support Chapter-led SWMS symposia and events.

Organization name and mission statement:

We are reflecting on how the name “Society for Women in Marine Science” relates to inclusion, particularly in regards to who feels comfortable being a member and welcomed within the group. We are also evaluating the SWMS mission statement, and how it relates to the inclusion of historically marginalized groups within marine science.

These areas all are important, and we expect to gather even more topics to interrogate from your feedback. These require lengthy discussion and thought, so they will be covered in-depth in a series of reflections released over the coming months. We hope that anyone from across the marine science community will engage in this conversation with us — that you will comment on how SWMS can better uphold the values of inclusion and support for our members’ intersectional identities.

Signed, 

The SWMS Steering Committee

#SWMSteam in pink over a background of water, with a swordfish, Antarctica, and a sediment core