Harriet Benson Fellowship Luncheon Highlights

The current and past recipients of the Harriet Benson Award gathered for the Annual Harriet Benson Fellowship Luncheon on Thursday, August 15, 2024, at the Stanford Faculty Club. This event provided an opportunity for awardees to share their ongoing research and projects, fostering a community of scholars committed to excellence in Earth and Planetary Sciences.

The Harriet Benson Award recognizes exceptional scholarship and research accomplishments by graduate students in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. We are thrilled to congratulate PhD student Emily Ellefson on being awarded the AY 2023-2024 Harriet Benson Fellowship. This prestigious award honors a continuing graduate student in their advanced years of study and celebrates their contributions to the field.This award is made possible by the generous endowment gift from Dr. Harriet Benson, a retired chemist with a long history of supporting Stanford and its students, particularly the women’s basketball team. Dr. Benson’s interest in Earth sciences has led her to audit several EPS courses over the past few years. Her gift is intended to further the careers of talented young scientists.

While some past recipients were unable to attend the luncheon, they eagerly shared updates on their careers and research:

Dr. Dana Thomas, Award 2014-2015 (The University of Texas at Austin)Dana is a geoscience educator dedicated to developing and facilitating impactful, inclusive programs that support students from diverse backgrounds in pursuing their goals. As a Senior Academic Program Coordinator in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Jackson School of Geosciences at UT Austin, Dana works to broaden participation in Earth, planetary, and environmental sciences, focusing on undergraduate education and extending into pre-college and post-baccalaureate phases. Her work includes leading programs such as the JSG summer undergraduate Research Traineeship Experience (RTX), the Math and Science Institute for incoming college freshmen, and a computational earthquake science summer school, among others.

Dr. Suzanne Birner, Award 2015-2016 (Berea College, Kentucky)Suzanne was recently awarded tenure at Berea College, a small liberal arts college in Kentucky that serves socioeconomically disadvantaged students. She also recently published a paper in Nature on mid-ocean ridge peridotites and their implications for the early Earth.

Dr. Cynthia (Cindy) McClain, Award 2013-2014 (University of Calgary, Canada)Cindy is the Director at the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, leading a team of geospatial scientists and technicians on projects such as mapping wetlands and groundwater dependent ecosystems using satellite data and AI approaches. In 2023, she received the Early Career Hydrogeologist Award from the International Association of Hydrogeologists (Canadian Chapter). Cindy is also an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary, where her first PhD student recently graduated.

Dr. Lijing Wang, Award 2019-2020 (University of Connecticut)Lijing is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Earth Sciences. Her research focuses on integrating hydrologic modeling with multiscale datasets to explore the impacts of various factors on watersheds and aquifers. Lijing also develops machine learning and Bayesian inference methods to calibrate hydrologic models. She is committed to teaching data science to geoscientists, as demonstrated in her new textbook, “Data Science for the Geosciences,” published by Cambridge University Press.

Dr. Virginia "Ginny" Isava, Award 2018-2019 (California State University, Fullerton)Ginny is an Assistant Professor in the Geological Sciences department at California State University, Fullerton, entering her fourth year in the position. Her research focuses on geoscience education, particularly how undergraduate courses are designed and how students develop essential career skills. Ginny also co-founded a peer mentoring program in her department to support sophomores and transfer students in their transition to college life.

The luncheon was a testament to the incredible achievements of Harriet Benson Award recipients, highlighting their continued contributions to the field and their commitment to advancing knowledge in Earth and Planetary Sciences.