Geochemistry and geochronology with Stephanie E. Suarez

Michele Ong

Welcome to STEAM Powered where I have conversations with women in STEAM to learn a little bit about what they do and who they are. I'm your host, Michele Ong.

My guest today is Stephanie E. Suarez. Stephanie is a PhD student at the University of Houston and is also a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Fellow. She specialises in geochemistry and geochronology and works with both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial materials, or rather earth and space matter.

Join us as we talk about being a first-generation college student, makeup, geological dating techniques, and volcanism on Mars.

Hello, Stephanie. Thank you for joining me today.

What is geochronology?

Michele Ong

So your specialisation is in geochemistry and geochronology. So for those who aren't familiar with the area, how would you explain what that involves?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** I'll just explain what geochronology is, 'cause geochemistry, that's way too broad.

So geochronology is a sort of specialty inside geochemistry. It's sort of the science of finding out how old are materials, and the materials I work with are minerals. So these minerals, they're composed of different elements, and sometimes, you know, elements like uranium sneak in. If we think of an atom, like atoms have sizes, and they have charges. And if uranium is like the same size and charge, it can just sneak into that mineral.

And by measuring uranium and lead, which it decays to, I can then sort of backtrack or back-calculate an age. So I've done that with these little minerals called zircons. And you can use other minerals, like I do with the, the Martian meteorites, I use all kinds of minerals.

And there's different chronometers.

Basically, whatever the mineral gives us we work with. So with zircons, you use uranium lead because uranium loves to sneak into zircons, or with the Martian meteorites, different elements on the periodic table, so Rubidium, Lutetium, Samarium. So my job is to sit at a mass spectrometer and measure them.

So that's pretty neat.

Michele Ong

That's awesome.

The questions that geochronology can answer.

Michele Ong

So you've mentioned that by finding out the accuracy of the dates of these things, it helps answer a lot of big questions. What sort of questions would this sort of information help to inform?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So with my projects, the first sort of questions we had were how old are these, the first ever animals or anthropods to ever appear in the fossil record because you, they, you know, by knowing how old they are, they give us clues to evolution, you know, when did, you know, when in our life's history did they appear exactly? And once they appeared, you know, how long did it take from it coming on land to breathing on land, and things like that.

So yeah. And with my other project, the sort of questions we asked, were wanting to know is when did volcanoes erupt on Mars? So, you know, there's volcanoes on Mars. They erupt and I can basically put an age on that and, you know, sort of not only time when does it happen, but what is the duration it's happening? Like, is it just two little eruptions? Or is it, like, five eruptions happening over a longer span of time, just sort of durations.

The accuracy and precision of dating materials.

Michele Ong

That's brilliant. So what kind of level of accuracy are you able to get when you're actually timing the duration or the intervals between eruptions?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So it depends on what machine you're using. I use a, uh, it's called a MC-ICPMS, and that stands for Multicollector-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer. And typically, the accuracy is about 10 percent, maybe 10 to 5 percent. But with something sort of more that takes, another mass spectrometer that we have is called TIMS, called Thermal Ion Mass Spectrometer, and those can get way more accurate dates. I'm not sure of the percentage.

But it analyses a sample longer. It's usually more expensive, and sometimes you need that accuracy see, like, with my first project, I sorta needed that accuracy because we're timing things that sorta lived, that we're living in a sort of a lifespan of, like, a person. So the error bar needs to be as as close as possible. So it just depends on your project and sometimes your budget. Like, you have to pay for these things.

So.

Michele Ong

Yeah.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah.

Michele Ong

That's very neat. So you able to get it down to, what, decades? Is that kind of the level of detail?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Usually, plus or minus, like I mean, the most accurate I've ever like, you know, 0.8 MA. So about 800,000 years. So, like but but geologist's time and people's time are way different. Way, way different.

So for me, if I see, you know, plus or minus 10,000,000 I'm like, Oh that's pretty good. Someone's like, that's the difference of 10,000,000 years. I'm like, no, that's excellent. That's really good. Like, it's it's a science that's, like, improving. You know, geochronology, really sort of, you know, the origins, somewhere around the seventies, eighties, you know, that's when commercially we could start buying mass spectrometers. And again, there are some people that sort of study the science of getting it more and more accurate. I'm not on that side, but pretty interesting, and people push the technology up and beyond what it's capable of. So yeah. Yeah.

Michele Ong

That's awesome. Well, when we were looking at, say, the millipede that Chris Hadfield tweeted about, you know, 425,000,000 years, 10- 10,000,000 either way, it's still pretty accurate when you're looking at the general range of the period.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah.

Getting retweeted by Chris Hadfield

Michele Ong

Yeah. So that was pretty cool getting tweeted by Chris Hadfield, though. That would have made my week.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah. I, I have seen him, like, sorted in TED Talks and I didn't know how, like, I knew he was famous, but I didn't know how famous until my friend, who was from Canada, was, like, he should be printed on money. That's how famous he is. Like, okay. He's, he's Commander of the ISS, you know, the Commander. And I was like, Oh yeah. So, it was very surreal because I was just, you know, outside with my dogs on the porch and, you know, it's just like, Oh wow. Okay. Like, didn't expect that.

Michele Ong

That's pretty awesome.

What drew Stephanie to the field of geology

Michele Ong

Cool. So how did, what interested you to get into geology and geochemistry?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So I wanted to be a geologist ever since I was in eighth grade. I'm from Houston, Texas, and all the major oil companies are centred here. And I live actually next to the refineries, you know, where they you know, once they get it out of the ground, they turn it into products. So I always knew, you know, this field equals job. And I come from a very low income area, And, you know, I wanted a job I enjoyed, but also to kind of strive for get a job so you never have to worry about money.

And usually, you know, they would try to suggest engineering, but I was not good at math. You still have to be good at math to be a geologist, but I wasn't really hardcore into calculations and stuff. So.

So I was in a magnet program in high school that was centred around the oil industry. And, you know, I went into college thinking, Oh I'm gonna be you know, I'm gonna look for oil. So a geologist in the oil industry kinda starts with them. And the geophysicists. They have to go and find it underneath, you know, hundreds of thousands of, of, of metres down. Well, actually, I don't know if that's the real range, but basically huge amounts of, of space, you know, below your feet.

From failing chemistry to measuring isotopes

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** And the the sort of, the sort of classes for it, I wasn't really interested. But then I got to mineralogy, which is kind of a big skill to have in geochemistry because you have to you know, basically, you're studying how do minerals form, and their chemical makeup, and stuff in their properties. And, you know, when I got to college, chemistry was the class that I failed. That was the first class that I dropped. I mean, I probably was gonna get a D or something in it.

So, you know, that really just crushed my confidence. And I retook it, I think, twice. Like, I retook it once and it was a C and I didn't– I wanted to get better. And then, you know, I, I get all caught up and then I finally get take mineralogy. And I was like, why wasn't this, why wasn't it taught to me, like, this the first time?

So that's sort of my success story that I failed chemistry, and now I get to measure isotopes for a living. So I was able to bring it back, but it's just very surreal because I hated it at first. Because I hated, I hated failing and then I end up doing it for a living.

Michele Ong

That's amazing. So with the mineralogy, like, how did that, how does that connect back to chemistry for you?

On developing the technique that helped to identify age of the 425-million-year-old millipede fossil from the Scottish island of Kerrera

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So that's where I met my first adviser. She was my mineralogy professor. and I told her I want a project and she, and she's a, she studies, you know, mountain belts. She's like a structural and geochronologist. I don't study structural. I think very small scale. She thinks very big scale and small scale. And she's like, I got these ashes, you know, from a, a collaborator or other, or collaborator Dr Brookfield. And she's like, if you can make it work, you know, the project's yours.

And it was a really difficult task because she wasn't, you know, she wasn't familiar with this kinds of rocks. She studies rocks like granite or, like, like, harder cohesive rocks and these were just ashes. Like, you would get it wet and it's, like, play like, clay is Play Doh, basically.

And I sort of engineered a way to separate it. There's a whole sort of process when you get a rock to– like I said, these minerals zircons usually, they're about the size of the tip of your hair, very small. And doing those kinds of techniques we already have, there's– nothing came out or like I said, it would get wet and it would just ball up. So I had to look up a paper, someone had made, like, a very expensive apparatus. And I said, well, I can do that with a a sonicator, peroxide, and a Ziploc tub thing.

And I did it, and it worked. And my adviser was like, whoa. Okay, like, who else was gonna take the time to do that? I figured that out, okay. And that's when we started getting data and started getting published. I got published as an undergrad. Yeah.

So, mineralogy, I think about it, and had I not failed chemistry I would have had to, I would have taken mineralogy earlier, and I wouldn't have met my first adviser, Dr Catlos. So I'm like, you know, everything happened for a reason. So that gave me peace.

I used to be stressed out about not, you know, graduating on time, but I was like, Well, if I hadn't have failed, I wouldn't have, you know, got retweeted by Chris Hadfield because that's where you know, I did, like, several projects under her. It's basically, like, I did these sorts of, I did the mineral separation, you know, 2017, 2016. So it's like, you know, publishing takes time and it's slowly getting out. So.

On being a first-generation college student

Michele Ong

Yeah. Things always happen for a reason. And you never know what that reason is until we actually find, you know, the next stage in your path. And it's just really great to know that, you know, you've been able to push through for that, especially with some personal issues that you said that you had getting to be a first-generation college student.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I, I'm from Houston, Texas, and I grew up, you know, culturally as a Latina. I mean, you see me and you see, like, I'm very pale and whatnot, but I never even met anyone who was white until I got to college. You know, my high school was 97% Hispanic.

So I get to college and that was, that was a huge culture shock just being like, what? You know, there's, you know, all kinds of people. Oh my god. And, you know, even though you're in Houston, which is one of the most diverse cities, you're very segregated. So, you know, I had no idea and then, you know, sort of, I was on a full ride, but, you know, the pressure, you know, it, it's conditional. Like, if you make a bad grade, Oh no. There goes your future and so that sort of anxiety I had–

Michele Ong

That's a lot of pressure to have. Yeah.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** The rigour, you know, even though I was in AP classes, you know, I just felt like very unprepared just for the rigour and the like, soft skills of studying. In, in high school, I just showed up and got an A. And it but I never had to, like, super buckle down and work for it. And, and then I had mental health issues. You know, I didn't have access to a doctor. I never really had insurance. So in college, you– there's all these services they have, and I was finally, you know, diagnosed with depression and so it was just a bad tornado of things. I had to take a semester off in order to sort of, like, you know, just deal with that, you know. And yeah. And I've pushed through and, you know, to get published as an undergrad. That's pretty impressive and–

Michele Ong

It is exceptional.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah. So those were the things I really struggled with initially when I first got to college.

Staying focussed and motivated during tough times

Michele Ong

So what what sort of things did you do to, you know, keep you going during that tough period? Because it's, it's such a lot of pressure, financial pressure, academic pressure, having to adjust to an entirely new environment. So, you know, with all those struggles, what did you do to keep going?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Well, at first, I was sort of reclusive. I didn't really trust anyone. I biked a lot. Biking really helped me. I was so fit back in Austin because I would bike to work, bike to school.

I sorta just did my own thing 'til sophomore. Yeah, like, like third year. Like, I didn't really start coming out of my shell until third year of college. That's when I started making friends and saying, Oh my god, you're struggling with this class too. You know, I didn't really like, freshman year, I was just too worried about even staying in college.

So just finding supportive people and, you know, in all aspects, not only, like, you know, you go to college, there's staff there. There's faculty there. It's like a whole little hierarchy of people. So I sort of found the good people. I found my adviser. I mean, my previous adviser. So those were ways I coped with it. I just surround myself with good people.

I guess that's the answer.

Finding support at college

Michele Ong

It's fantastic. So did they have a lot of support for, like, surely, like, there'll be other people in similar situations. Did your college have any support systems relating to that? Or did you have to go and find the the mentoring and the support yourself?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Well, what– again, with my background, I feel like they're unprepared or they don't really know what, you know, what to do or how to handle it. I was part of a outreach group, I mean outreach program, they had a diversity program. Geology is one of the least diverse sciences.

They had a diversity program named GeoForce, and they found me in, what's it called, in high school. And they take you to, like, national parks every other summer, you know, And they have their office, like, they're they're based in Austin.

So a big part of going to Austin and going to UT Austin was the fact that I was like, okay, they're there. They get that I'm first-generation. They know that these are ways that students fall through the cracks. So the previous director, Dr Snow, I think she she works for USGS now, she was a good mentor in helping me navigate this stuff.

Like, first-gen students, there's a lot of times where just, you know, you don't know, like, social, you don't wanna fall into, like, social, faux pas, or you don't want to you know, you're like, Oh how do I drop this class? Or What do you mean? I had a one time exception. I didn't take it kind of things. Just little things that, you know, that it's not really explicitly told to you unless you had a parent that went to college.

Michele Ong

Yeah.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So I'm glad I had them who specifically were there to not only recruit students in, but to keep them there, yeah.

Michele Ong

Yeah. That's one of the things that I found at university as well.

This not just, you know, in tech, but, you know, still applicable mainly for my school, which is computing. I did computer science. And we had a lot of retention issues. People would be dropping up left, right, and centre from in the first year.

And, you know, it was pretty tough trying to get people to keep going because the courses were different. The environment was different. Some people had no idea how to come out of high school and into university environment. where you have to do more independent learning.

And, you know, there would have been people as well who are first-generation students, but there wasn't much in the way of support or mentoring available to help get people past that first stage of, Oh my god, Uni. So–

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Mhmm.

Michele Ong

Yeah. It's really important to have those sorts of programs just to show you the ropes and teach you the things that, you know, you don't know that you don't know.

So it's great that you've got your programs like GeoForce to help people with that.

So the work that you're talking about with the rocks on Mars and volcanism, is that out of your doctoral studies?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah. It was my Master's and it's continuing on to be my PhD because I stayed with the same people and in the same program.

What learning about Mars volcanism teaches us

Michele Ong

That's great. So with the volcanism, the work that you're doing with the millipede. That gives us a better idea of evolutionary timelines and the way that, you know, we're getting all our different life forms that we have today. What sort of information can we get from the volcanism on Mars?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Not only when I study Martian meteorites, is it telling me about a volcanism on Mars. It's telling me about Mars' insides.

Mars doesn't have plate tectonics. It was a planet and it formed and it just you know, not you know, there's no tectonic– there's no recycling, like, with earth. We don't, you know, we do have some, you know, older bodies, but, you know, we have much younger land. Mars that doesn't, no.

Also, we have the largest volcanoes on Mars too. So to know about I mean, that in and of itself is pretty interesting. But again, I study sort of the insides of Mars too. So you know, these volcanoes tap into the mantle. So the mantle is, you know, one of the layers of, of a planet. And, you know, it's kinda like a lava lamp. You know, there's, you know, blobs going up, been down, and this is where it ties back to the chemistry. Some elements love to just escape.

They're called incompatible elements. And some like to stay. So we start developing all these hypotheses of how did Mars form and how is it interacting inside? And, you know, in addition to the the whole volcanism story, I think I'm more interested in the mantle part.

Michele Ong

Mhmm.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So one is giving us, you know, mantle dynamics of another planet. It's giving us, you know, how, how did planetary formation, how did Mars form in the beginning? And what you know. You know, these are our only pieces we have so far. We supplement it with rovers. But rovers are built, you know, sort of compact for a reason. You can't send, you know, my machines up there.

Michele Ong

Yeah.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So you know, the best we can do is get as much information as we can here on Earth with these awesome machines that we have that are you know, much better. So yeah. I can tell about the– you about the particular project I'm working on.

Stephanie's PhD Mars research and the volcanic plumbing of Mars

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** My PhD project is studying five Martian meteorites that are part of approximately 15 others that we hypothesise to come from the same crater. And the– how we're doing that is one, they're the same type of meteorites. They're called olivine-phyric shergotittes. They're sorta like basalts from Hawaii with a lot of olivines in them.

Also, in addition of me when I time something that's called its crystallisation age, when did it, you know, sort of erupt from a magma, and when did it cool down? There's something called an ejection age. An ejection age is when did it fly off from Mars's surface?

So these 15 meteorites approximately 15 meteorites have the same ejection age and they have, you know, the ones we've dated so far, the oldest is 2,000,000,000 and the youngest is around I wanna say, like, 400,000,000. So, you know, like I said, these volcanoes aren't moving around. They're stationary. So, you know, we're taking that to be that these were, like, individual layers that, you know, is sort of recording this volcano that was active for approximately 2,000,000,000 years. My, you know, my role is that not all of these are dated yet. So, so I'm gonna date about five of them. In addition to that, I'll do something, I'll do new skill called petrology, which is really studying the minerals in extreme detailed detail that you wouldn't believe if I told you. We sorta we make thin sections of these rocks, and we put them in other machines and we look at the elements.

But basically, what these sort of this sort of data is telling us was sort of the story of, of right before it erupted. Like, did it sort of cool down at first and form bigger crystals and then erupted or were there several chambers? That sort of part, I'm not an expert in, but that's what– a skill I'll be developing.

Michele Ong

That's awesome. So does telling us– Oh does learning about what happened right before ejection just teach us more about how the volcanoes work?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah. I think terminology, they say, is the plumbing system. The so like the volcanic plumbing system, like so. So one part of the story you're getting is what sort of plumes? Like I said, like, a lava lamp where are they tapping into? And when it's coming up, again, does it sort of chill out here in another little cavern before it erupts? Or did it interact with another type of meteorite we're seeing?

So we just have, you know, it's pretty crazy what we're doing. It's like if, you know, someone gave you a piece of Hawaii from Earth and another piece from Canada, and say here, make a story, tell us what you know. It's insane.

Basically, we just we have I think approximately 200 Martian meteorites and we find more and more, but, you know, to like, if I gave you a pile of rocks and say, Okay, tell me as much as you know about this planet, it's a huge endeavour because, yeah.

The techniques used for dating materials from Mars

Michele Ong

It's amazing scope. That's that's very cool work there. And is it still using the same sorts of techniques that you were using with the zircons, or are you working on other techniques?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So yeah. With these sorts again, we work with what what does the rock have in it. And these sorts of rocks don't have zircons, but what they do have are different minerals, olivine, pyroxene, oxides, plagioclase, and what we do is we create something called an isochron.

It's basically, you know, simple y=mx\+d, and the slope of it is the h. And to make this line, we measure each of these minerals because these elements like to partition in different sorts of proportions. And over time, they decay, so it starts off as a single line of each mineral with different proportions, and then it, you know, becomes a slope. Yeah.

So that's sort of what I'm doing here in Houston. Separating out these minerals, and again, using this time I melt the minerals, I sort of dissolve them. And my first experiment, I was just zapping them with a laser beam. In this case, I am dissolving them completely taking a rock and turning it into a liquid with no particulates in it at all.

Michele Ong

Wow.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** So it's, it's way different. That's why I'm glad I did the Master's. There's always a debate here in the US about, Oh should I just go straight into my PhD or do a Master's? And my adviser here was, like, do the Master's. And then I said, are you sure? And he said, yes. So I did it, and I I'm real thankful I did it because it was, it's a lot it's a lot to learn.

I had never really worked in a hard core chemistry lab before 'til I got here. And I'm real grateful for my lab manager, Dr Rider, who trained me and taught me everything and was very patient with me. So.

Michele Ong

So why would you not or what reasons do people have for not doing a Master's first?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** I don't know. One, universities just don't like to put money into people that are just gonna go to industry. Usually, if you have a two year degree, you're gonna go into industry versus if someone gives you a pile of money and you, sort of contribute back to academia. I don't know.

It's just becoming more and more common that they're not funding Master's, I don't know. To me, it's like it's I think it's kind of better if you just sort like, what if you, you know– PhD is a huge commitment. Like–

Michele Ong

It is.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Average 6 years. I think it's pretty cool to just do two years. And if you say, I, this isn't for me, and you can just leave. So

Michele Ong

Yeah. That's good taste for it first before you commit to the full six.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah.

Michele Ong

Yeah. That's cool. That's interesting. I didn't realise it was a thing. But yeah, politics.

Might start heading on to some of the other extra questions.

Bonus Question 1: What hobby or interest do you have that is most unrelated to your field of work?

Michele Ong

So what hobby your interest do you have that is most unrelated to your work.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Well, I don't wanna, like, make stereotypes or anything like that, but I think makeup is far removed from geology. But then again, it's not, you know, you know, once you start studying something and you see it everywhere, I really like cosmetics. I really like watching YouTube makeup tutorials. I like trying, I mean, it's the same, same thing rehashed, but I, I love it. So again, like, being sort of a mineralologist, you read the, the ingredients, and you're like, Oh this is crushed up talc and micah. Someone had a geologist had to find this.

So, yeah, I was trying to think of that question. The the one thing I can think of was well cosmetics. But then again, it's like, I don't wanna make that stereotype, so scientists don't wanna make up, but that's alright.

Michele Ong

Yeah. I suck at makeup. It I came to it late. Not very good at it. when I discovered that you could have winged eyeliner pen nibs, it's like holy crap. But when I was looking stuff up, I found this blog called Lab Muffin. and she's a blogger in Sydney. I don't know if you've come across it. She's a PhD chemist.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah.

Michele Ong

Yeah. PhD chemist who breaks down what's in makeup and based on what in it tells you whether the claims that they make for their wonderful technologies and what they do, whether it's legit. So that's pretty cool.

With the tutorials, like, is it mainly about the eyes? Like, contouring? What sort of things are you looking at?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Well, it's mostly trying out new products, and honestly, the companies will pay the YouTubers be like, Oh I love this, but they're getting sponsored under the table. So it's different climate now. But mostly, trying out new things or new looks, stuff like that.

Michele Ong

Cool. Does being, does your background as a mineralogist effect the kind of products that you would buy or use?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** No. I think just wearing it use, use of it? Does it smudge during the day kind of thing? But I don't think, yeah, no.

Michele Ong

Don't get into the nitty gritty about it.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** It's the same ingredient. It's the same ingredients.

Michele Ong

Yep. Cool. Okay.

Bonus Question 2: Which childhood book holds the strongest memories for you?

Michele Ong

And which childhood book holds the most memories for you?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** The first one that I can remember in middle school. I was trying to think of kindergarten, I couldn't remember anything past middle school, was a biography on Princess Diana.

You know, further on in life, what I really liked about her was she was really open with her depression and I believe she had a eating disorder. And, you know, when I first started talking about my struggles with mental health, a lot of people would message me privately and say, Oh my god, thank you for being vocal, I have this too.

And I grew up in a good environment where it wasn't stigmatised or anything. So I was surprised that people– it was, what, 2012, I was surprised. So for her to be so open back in the nineties was, like, whoa. And just, you know, just be you know, there's nothing wrong with it, you know. So that's why I've always been vocal too, so I really looked up to her in that regard.

Michele Ong

Yeah. She really was inspiring like that then. I remember what a stir it caused with her talking so openly about all these issues, but–

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah.

Michele Ong

Really paves the way for people being more open to talk about it.

Bonus Question 3: What advice you would give someone who wants to do what you do? Or what advice should they ignore?

Michele Ong

And lastly, what advice would you give someone who wants to do what you do? And what sort of advice should they ignore?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** My best advice is to find good advisors.

My first advisor was Dr Catlos at UT Austin, and my second advisor for Master's and PhD, is Dr Latham at University of Houston. And I think they've been so monumental to my success. I know a lot of people say, Oh don't don't credit your adviser that much. You did all the work.

Yeah. But, I mean, as a first-generation student, I feel like I sort of depended on them a little bit more I mean, not a lot, but there is just, you know, you know, college is one world and then academia is a whole another monster, and they're gonna be your guide, and they're gonna tell you, hey, I've done that. Don't do that. And I'm still, like, sort of battling with my current advisor who says, don't do that, and I'll do it. And it's like, why'd you do that?

So now I learned my lesson and I, I listened. I really listened this time.

So, yeah, my advice for being in geochemistry or academia in general no matter what you study is find those good advisers.

Advice I should ignore. Anyone that tells you you can't or just being negative in any regard or questioning your abilities, you know, to me, I feel like I had that a lot of, Oh you're behind and all this, but I was like, yeah, but I came from a lower position than you did, you know, economically and socially.

So I would just ignore any naysayers or negative, like, you're there because you're interested in something. And for whatever reason, there's gonna be a lot of bitter people that just wanna talk down to you. I don't know why. I, I don't know, but just ignore them and be with the good people.

Michele Ong

Yeah. So, tough question. How do you find the good people?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** There's just, I don't know. Like, the first, the first good person was because I took her course, and I had friends who worked for her. It, it sort of word-of-mouth, honestly. That's what it is.

You'll get suggestions from people or, you know, your reputation does precede you. This, you know, my adviser now, what sort of, you know, hit it off was, you know, I was emailing lots of people, you know, about grad school, And he was the first one to sort of be like, Oh hey, you should come and tour the lab, you know, it was a welcoming sort of thing. So that to me was like, okay. This is different.

And, I don't know, you just sorta click with someone. You know? I–

Michele Ong

Like a connection.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** It's real un– It's real unexplainable. You just click with advisers.

Michele Ong

Yeah. You just build a rapport just by talking to them.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Yeah.

Michele Ong

That's great. Well it's excellent advice.

Okay, well, thank you so much for speaking with me today, Stephanie. It has been a real treat to learn more about you and what you do. And yeah. And also, really inspiring to hear a bit about your personal journey. as well.

And I hope that it helps others get to where they wanna be by hearing your story. So thank you. And if people want to find out more about you and your work, how can they reach out?

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** I'm really active on Twitter. I guess my handle will be linked in, in below, but it's @geologiststephy.

Michele Ong

Mhmm.

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** And or they can find my email address if they're not acquainted with social media, I know not everyone is. So.

Michele Ong

Yep. Great. I'll link those in the show notes. Okay. Well, thank you again, and we'll

**Stephanie E. Suarez:** Thank you for having me.

Michele Ong

Oh, absolutely. Loved having you on.

Okay. Thank you.

I really appreciate Stephanie sharing her journey to academia with us and explaining her work. It's great to learn how geochronology can teach us more about evolution of life on earth and how volcanism on Mars can give us more information about how planets are formed. If you'd like to learn more about Stephanie and what we discussed on this show or to connect with us, please visit the STEAM Powered website at steampoweredshow.com.

You can also reach out to Stephanie on Twitter @geologiststephy, that's geologist S-T-E-P-H-Y, and also via email, which I'll include in the show notes.

If you enjoyed this conversation, please let me know. Subscribe to this channel, leave a comment below and share this with your geeky or geek-curious friends. You can also find out other ways to support STEAM Powered by going to steampoweredshow.com/support.

Thanks for watching.