Women in Science: Geochemist Terry Plank

"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."

"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."

Terry Plank developed a fascination with rocks as a child in Delaware after finding mica and garnets near her home. Her mother, trained as a chemist, encouraged rock collecting, drawing atomic diagrams, and microscopy, later earning geology degrees and authoring Delaware's bedrock map. Plank is a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a professor of Earth and environmental sciences who researches processes shaping the Earth's crust and their influence on volcanoes. Plank holds memberships in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow. She emphasizes fieldwork and collaboration in research.

Read at State of the Planet