Long before Terry Plank became an award-winning geochemist and volcanologist, she was a third grader mesmerized by the shiny rocks near her home in Delaware. Plank credits her mom as an early inspiration for her research.
Now, as a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School, and professor of Earth and environmental sciences, Plank studies the phenomena shaping the Earth’s crust and how they affect the world’s volcanoes.
As a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, she continues to highlight the importance of fieldwork and collaboration in her research. In the Q&A below, Plank discusses how she got started in the field.
How did you get into science?
I was literally born in a rock quarry in Delaware. When I needed a hobby in third grade, my mom said, “Why don’t you go outside and look at the rocks?” There were shiny mica crystals and red garnets. I was hooked and never looked back.
Is there a woman in science who inspired you?
My mother. She encouraged me to collect rocks, draw pictures of atoms at the breakfast table, learn to look at thin sections by microscope. She was a stay-at-home mom but trained as a chemist, like pretty much everyone else in Delaware at the time, due to the DuPont company being a major employer in Wilmington. She enjoyed our geology field trips so much that she went back to college in her 50s and got a second B.A. and then an M.A. in geology and ended up authoring the bedrock map of Delaware.
“I feel lucky to have been a woman at a time when the sciences were trying to expand representation.”
Statistically, women represent only about a third of researchers and tend to receive smaller research grants than their male colleagues. Have you faced such challenges as a woman scientist? Do you see things improving?
I have not faced such challenges. Just the opposite—I feel lucky to have been a woman at a time when the sciences were trying to expand representation. The only reason I am lucky enough to be at Columbia was for a university program that provided funding for opportunity hires for women. At the time, I was the first full professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and there were only two other women on the faculty. When I was a graduate student at Lamont in the ’80s, there were none. Now we outnumber the men!
Do you have any advice for younger women or girls who are interested in entering the field?
The Earth is awesome, bigger than we are and constantly changing. It holds secrets and discoveries. If you are passionate about the Earth, get out there and experience her!
