Degrees of Freedom

This episode features Dr. Dalal Naijb. Dalal is the Director for Science and Engineering Capacity Development at the National Academy of Sciences in the Policy and Global Affairs Division. Dalal grew up in Morocco and did her undergraduate work in France. For her PhD, she came to the US, earning a doctorate in Climate and Space Sciences Engineering, as well as a Masters in Public Policy, from the University of Michigan. Like previous Degrees of Freedom guests, Dalal entered the science policy world through the Mirzayan Science Policy Fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences. At NAS, Dalal has been a driving force behind truly transformative international scientific collaboration-building mechanisms, like the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research Program and the Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine program.

In this conversation, Dalal describes her career path from hard sciences and engineering to working on fostering innovative, impactful scientific collaborations across the world. We also talk about the challenges women face as they rise in leadership in the policy world and gaps in science policy opportunities in the US and elsewhere.

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This episode features Dr. Federico "Ico" San Martini. Ico is a Senior Programme Management Officer at the Multilateral Fund  for the Implementation for the Montreal Protocol. Ico got a PhD in chemical engineering from MIT, and afterwards he worked with Nobel Prize winning Professor Mario Molina on air pollution issues in Mexico City. Ico entered the science policy world through a Mirzayan Science Policy Fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences, followed by a AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship at the State Department. Staying on at the State Department in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Ico worked on a wide range of issues from water resources to short-lived climate forcers. He also helped establish an air quality monitoring network at US diplomatic facilities that shares data openly with the public. 

In this conversation, Ico takes us down his career path, and he describes his motivations for the choices he made along the way. It's a valuable conversation for anyone thinking through frameworks on how they want to make their own career decisions align most closely with their own specific sense of mission.

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This episode features Dr. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, a Principal Scientist at Microsoft’s AI for Earth. Bruno got his astrophysics PhD from the Max Planck Institute, and he has used his science skills to work everywhere from Mapbox to the World Bank to his job now at Microsoft.

When you look at Bruno’s career, it’s a string of bright shiny lights – stints at cool international organizations and companies, fancy titles, and lots of impactful work in tech, sustainability, and international development. But Bruno is super candid in the interview on sharing the struggles he’s had along the way, the leaps of faith he has made in finding the path that is right for him, and how his career has been a constant search for finding all the ways he can to define impactful scientific work. 

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This episode features Dr. Langley Dewitt. Langley is an atmospheric chemist and the director of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC) and lives in Boulder, Colorado. Langley's had an interesting, varied career that has touched multiple sectors. She's done atmospheric chemistry fieldwork on a mountainside in Rwanda, worked on a research vessel in the Indian Ocean, she’s been a consultant in the private sector, and now she’s running a science non-profit. She's also balanced her cool science work inside and outside of academia along with a cool life outside of work. And in our conversation, you’ll hear her give some solid advice on this – and also on how having a life outside of her job has actually, in turn, helped her career grow.

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Alex Dehgan is a science diplomacy superstar. From his work on conservation to his efforts to infuse US international development with science, he has led an inspiring and unique career. In this interview, he shares how his background, including a PhD in evolutionary biology and a law degree, led him to the work he does today as CEO of Conservation X Labs, pushed him to elevate science to new heights at USAID as its Chief Scientist, and shaped his views on the incredible power of bringing more scientists into diplomatic work. 

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This episode features Dr. Anna Scott. Anna is President and co-founder of Project Canary, a B-Corps that fights climate change through monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. Anna discusses her path from a Math BS to Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology PhD to social entrepreneur.

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This episode features Dr. Zhuangfang Nana Yi. NaNa is a Machine Learning Engineer at Development Seed, where she works on a variety of impactful projects involving geospatial data. NaNa discusses how growing up as an ethnic minority in a remote area near the border of China, Myanmar, and Laos has shaped her specific sense of mission in her career, and how she found ways to leverage her PhD in Ecological Economics to make it all happen.

Resources, references, and organizations mentioned during the episode: