Kira Lawrence, John H. Markle Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, recently was a guest on “Roads Taken,” a podcast that highlights the professional and personal paths Dartmouth Class of 1996 grads have taken since college.
In the episode, Lawrence discusses the professional path that has brought her career fulfillment as an educator and climate scientist. Lawrence is an expert in paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, and earth systems history, who uses the remnants of organisms preserved in ocean sediments to reconstruct past changes in ocean surface temperature to help us understand climates of the past and predict climates of the future. She is currently on leave from Lafayette, working to inform climate-related policy within New Jersey’s Division of Clean Energy at the state’s Board of Public Utilities.
Lawrence also gets personal: She shares how she found strength in difference and how feeling “othered” inspired her to fight for equality. She is motivated as a scientist, an activist, and a mom to make the world a better place for future generations.