Introducing the 2019 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Emily Fischer
Job: CSU professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences
What advice would she give her 12-year-old self? "You are only limited by what you can imagine and how you picture yourself."
What superpower would she choose? "To fly"
Some women in STEM careers had an aha moment in which they found a career path that was right for them. Others were so passionate about an interest early on that it morphed into their career aspirations. This was the case for Emily Fischer, an assistant professor in the CSU Department of Atmospheric Science and the keynote speaker for this year's EYH conference. She recalls that even as a young girl, she cared about the weather and air quality. She was so curious about weather that in 5th grade, she called the local meteorologist while on air to ask questions. And in high school, her sustained interest in air-quality drove her to lead an award winning campaign to end smoking in the school bathrooms.
Today, Dr. Fischer spearheads research at CSU studying the gases that compose the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere we call home. Her research takes her outside of the lab and into the atmosphere. She leads a collaborative project that puts her aboard a C-130, a tactical transport aircraft used by the Forest Service during maintenance of wildland fires. Dr. Fischer and her team fly a C-130 fully equipped with scientific instruments into the smoke plumes of wildfires. This project aims to understand the chemical composition of wildfire emissions and how those evolve to impact air quality, weather, and climate.
It was Dr. Fischer's interest in weather and air quality that brought her to her to where she is now, but she admits that when she was a student she was unsure how those interests could make a career. Luckily, she had several women role models that welcomed her into the field of atmospheric science. These included college roommates who were scientists and a professor at the University of West Virginia who showed her that women can do science. Dr. Fischer is now involved in a various outreach endeavors to help welcome the next generation of women geoscientists. She enjoys doing outreach because it forces her to be a forward thinker and she would much rather be connected with the future, not the past.
Photo from: https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/07/20/csu-researchers-plane-study-wildfires/
