{"id":844,"date":"2021-02-08T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T14:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/women-in-climate\/?p=844"},"modified":"2021-02-08T14:13:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T14:13:00","slug":"member-blog-dr-ruth-geen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/womeninclimate\/2021\/02\/08\/member-blog-dr-ruth-geen\/","title":{"rendered":"Member Blog &#8212; Dr. Ruth Geen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"sites.exeter.ac.uk\/women-in-climate\/2021\/02\/04\/member-blog-dr-ruth-geen\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-835\" style=\"padding-bottom: 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/women-in-climate\/files\/2021\/02\/Tile_Ruth_Geen-1024x576.png\" alt=\"Click the above tile to read their blog. &quot;My childhood dreams were all strongly shaped by a love of the outdoors and a passion to do what I could to make the world a better place.&quot; Dr. Ruth Chapman, Research Fellow, University of Exeter\" width=\"648\" height=\"365\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>My Path into Science: The Masterplan<\/h4>\n<p>As a child I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Age 4-7: Woods-woman &#8211; Friend to foxes and owls, I would hunt for my food and live in an underground burrow, traveling only by horse. Farmer\u2019s wife was a back-up option.<\/li>\n<li>Age 7-12: Famous author, illustrator and wildlife documentary filmmaker &#8211; I planned to travel the world, learning about animals and filming BBC documentaries. My travels would inspire my novels.<\/li>\n<li>Age 12-13: Prime minister &#8211; With climate change, war and inequality the world was clearly a mess. I felt called to form a new political party to sort things out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, where I am now (Research Fellow in Climate) was not what I imagined! Basically, I\u2019ve just followed my strengths and interests. My childhood dreams were all strongly shaped by a love of the outdoors and a passion to do what I could to make the world a better place. In secondary school I found Maths and Physics challenged but engaged me, driving me to try harder and do better to crack problems. Even so, it wasn\u2019t until a lab class late in my undergraduate degree that I realised Atmospheric Physics\/Climate Science was a way to bring these two puzzle pieces together.<br \/>\nSo, what helped and what didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n<h5>Roadblocks<\/h5>\n<p><em>Not knowing what being a scientist meant, in a practical sense<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In outreach talks we\u2019d hear: \u2019the next Einstein might be in this room right now\u2019, \u2018the person who solves this problem could be one of you\u2019. This is well-meant, but for me was intimidating more than motivational. I was good at maths but I was fully aware I was not a genius!<\/p>\n<p>Scientists seemed to be another species that could pull new ideas about the world out of the air through sheer brilliance. We\u2019d do experiments in science classes, but these were retreading well-known ground. Being the first to learn something about the world was unimaginable.<\/p>\n<p>Age appropriate outreach or TV showing how individual scientists actually ask questions and solve problems might have helped demystify this. We (rightly!) highlight the names like Einstein or Darwin, who made fantastic discoveries. But in reality most science is incremental, chipping away at small pieces of a bigger problem until an answer emerges.<\/p>\n<p><em>Lack of confidence<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I am in awe of friends who have chased their dreams, whether that\u2019s in science, music, art or business. At some point in secondary school my ambition and confidence to dream big vanished. Sometimes teachers or friends try to be kind by managing expectations: \u201cScience is difficult\u201d, \u201cOxford is competitive\u201d, \u201cLots of people want to be vets\u201d, \u201cYou need to know the right people to go into politics\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Those statements are all reasonable and might actually motivate some people. But when we focus too much on cushioning someone from failure there\u2019s a risk of discouraging them from even trying. Whether you\u2019re raising a child or supervising a post-doc, encourage them to just give the next step a go.<\/p>\n<p>Fear of failure, of wasting time on a dead end, or of looking stupid and arrogant are still the biggest barriers I face day-to-day. Imposter syndrome limits my ambition and leaves me paralysed with indecision.<\/p>\n<h5>Things that have helped me progress in science<\/h5>\n<p><em>A good start: Family &amp; education<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My dad&#8217;s an engineer and my mum\u2019s an accountant. STEM subjects were valued my family and our background was financially comfortable.<\/p>\n<p>I went to an all-girls secondary school with a mix of male and female science teachers. I\u2019m not a fan of single-sex schooling, I think it made men and boys seem very \u2018other\u2019. But a positive side-effect was that Physics was never a gendered subject for me at school.<\/p>\n<p>University-level Physics was a shock to the system! I could laugh off banter about what I\u2019d done to get my place, but it did make me realise women weren\u2019t the norm here. This was the first time imposter syndrome hit; had I got a place to fill some quota?<\/p>\n<p><em>Supportive friends and colleagues <\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve worked alongside hard-working, creative, kind and approachable people. From undergrad on I have been surrounded by friends to bounce ideas off and I\u2019ve not felt in direct\/hostile competition with my colleagues, even when we apply for the same grants or jobs.<\/p>\n<p><em>Good mentorship: Freedom with nudges<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been given support and space through my PhD and post-doc to develop my own ideas, explore side-projects, publish solo, practice writing grants, travel and build a network. I\u2019ve also been nudged to think through how to manage my career and encouraged to apply for jobs or fellowships even if the odds are tough.<\/p>\n<p><em>Luck &#8211; Roadblocks I didn\u2019t hit<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I feel very lucky I\u2019ve had all of the above!<\/p>\n<p>A good working environment is something that should be a baseline expectation for everyone. We should all feel safe and accepted at work. Subconscious bias is tough to beat, but it would be nice to think of it as the \u2018final boss\u2019 on the road to diversity and inclusion in science, and to pretend we\u2019re all hard at work on that goal. So it\u2019s uncomfortable to say how grateful I am that I\u2019ve had good luck with my mentorship and research groups, compared to female friends who have been mismanaged out of science at \u2018best\u2019 and harassed or assaulted at worst.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I\u2019m white, middle-class, cis and in a straight relationship. I have been able to live in the country I grew up in throughout my career to date, but I\u2019ve had the choice to work abroad easily available. I don\u2019t think gender has not played any role in the opportunities I\u2019ve had, but it would be wrong to ignore the privilege I do have.<\/p>\n<h5>The Masterplan?<\/h5>\n<p>I\u2019m still taking my career step by step. The next goal is to work towards a permanent research position, but I\u2019m still intimidated by how competitive science is. So for now I\u2019ll work hard and try to be ambitious, and think big, and dare to dream\u2026 but we\u2019ll see. Most of all, I want a career where I can use the strengths I have to do work I feel is worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026But I could paint my whole science story in a more intentional light. One daydreamed novel from my \u2018famous author\u2019 years was a post-apocalyptic romance set in a world ruined by climate change and nuclear war. In my scribbled plans is a note: \u2018Gulf stream may shut down? Learn more about climate change\u2019. \u20268 years and counting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Path into Science: The Masterplan As a child I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: Age 4-7: Woods-woman &#8211; Friend to foxes and owls, I would hunt for my food and live in an underground burrow, traveling only by horse. Farmer\u2019s wife was a back-up option. Age 7-12: Famous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1073,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Member Blog - Dr. Ruth Geen - Women in Climate (WiC) network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/womeninclimate\/2021\/02\/08\/member-blog-dr-ruth-geen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Member Blog - Dr. Ruth Geen - Women in Climate (WiC) network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Path into Science: The Masterplan As a child I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: Age 4-7: Woods-woman &#8211; Friend to foxes and owls, I would hunt for my food and live in an underground burrow, traveling only by horse. 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