Erin is a 6th year PhD candidate in the Department of Biology at the University of Utah. She works in the area of tropical plant biology, studying influences on seed germination in wet and dry tropical climates. This is Erin's first year in TGLL and she has been doing a wonderful job! She is our TGLL in the spotlight for her above and beyond work in the category of "influencing a major resource."
Erin was searching on the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), an online repository of scientific knowledge in the biological sciences, for podcasts to share with her TGLL classroom. She noticed that some of the podcasts only highlighted one of scientists presenting work. In particular, she was wanting to highlight the female scientists in the podcast. She contacted EOL about how to find podcasts that featured women. They responded quite surprisingly: EOL's decision was to gather, specifically, the podcasts they have done with the many women in the life sciences. This collection, found here, provides ready access for those wanting to specifically learn from these women in science, or just for listening to a variety of scientists. Erin contacted EOL came after she realized that many times, without meaning to, we default "scientists" to connote men. In fact, there are many, many women in science--including Erin herself!
ERIN SPEAR |