Originally Posted: Jan. 1, 2019
Dr. Heather DeShon, Associate Professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, describes how her love of science as a child led her to pursue a career in academia, her return to the Hilltop as a member of the faculty, and how women are making progress in the sciences.
How did you first discover your passion for geophysics?
In elementary school I always chose the earthquake or volcano for class projects and loved to camp and be outdoors with my family, and I remained very interested in all things science throughout junior high and high school. My mother made me read her National Geographic magazine so she could have someone to talk to about the articles, and that experience instilled a fundamental interest and love of learning. I actually have the May 1984 National Geographicdisplayed in my office with the article on Mt. Vesuvius that I reported on for an elementary grade science project. It was not until I was midway through high school that I realized that all of my favorite hobbies and science topics were, in fact, Earth Science topics, and I could spend my career studying and teaching about earthquakes and volcanoes. I declared a major in Geophysics before I arrived at SMU in 1995, and I never looked back. READ MORE
