Open AccessYoung geologist trades neptunium for newspapers as 2012 AGU Mass Media Fellow
Author(s) -
Adams Mary Catherine
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2012eo220014
Subject(s) - neptunium , geologist , newspaper , journalism , mass media , plutonium , uranium , library science , chemistry , political science , engineering , media studies , sociology , history , radiochemistry , physics , law , archaeology , computer science , nuclear physics
Though the lure of rocks, minerals, and radioactive elements took her away from her original studies, one geology Ph.D. candidate is returning to her journalism roots this summer as AGU's 2012 Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow. Jessica Morrison is one of 12 young scientists nationwide who are trading in their lab coats for reporters' notebooks in mid‐June as part of the program coordinated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which helps young scientists cultivate communication skills to help disseminate scientific information to general audiences. Morrison is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. She spends her days in a laboratory investigating the geochemistry of actinides, the radioactive elements in the “no man's land” of the periodic table—the section that often gets left off or moved to the bottom. These are elements like uranium, neptunium, and plutonium.