Engaging Scientist in the Public Discourse

Source: picture was taken after the interview with my phone

         William Armstrong is an Earth Scientist who studies glaciology and is a new member to the App State team when he joined back in the fall of 2017. He received his PhD in Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder and BS of environmental Geoscience at the Boston College.
         So before going into this interview we first read one of Dr. Armstrong’s publications, “Spatial Patterns of Summer Speedup on South Central Alaska Glaciers,” and we went in with general questions on the article and on himself.
         We first asked how he would describe his own article to someone without a science background. His answer was very interesting, instead of spitting out more confusion, he really reached to explain it to us as a true educator. He began by explaining that glaciers move in two different ways, the first is by flowing with a thick fluid and the second is by sliding and or slipping on top of the bedrock. This process is called Basal Sliding, this is what he was observing for the article. Even though both process is affected by climate change Basal sliding occurs faster and provides a quicker way for how glaciers respond to climate change.
         Dr. Armstrong then explained how he got his data through satellite imagery. By taking an overhead picture of the glacier and then repeating that over time, they can see a change in the movement and how much the glacier has shifted. This research provides a look into the pattern of Basal Sliding across different glaciers and how they behave as a whole. This also allows for a better prediction of how glaciers will change and erode surrounding landscapes over time. When asked what was it that made him interested in spatial patterns of glaciers Dr. Armstrong responded more with an explanation of what he studies and why. He studies change on a human timescale, he has been more interested in things we can see and observe on the earth’s surface. This is change occurring fast enough to affect people and be affected by people. This is important because the study of glaciers is relevant to us now.
          He was then asked why he thought this information is important and what were the groups of people he was trying to reach. He then responds with “You don’t want to be doing science in a vacuum, you want to be doing science that contributes to our knowledge of how the world works.” The study was then conducted because they had little knowledge on what Basal sliding might look like and it allows them to predict how glaciers will change through simulated glaciers capturing reality and figuring out how they carve through land. When asked what the hardest part of the research was Dr. Armstrong gave two examples, the first was figuring out what he needed to extract from the data and the abundance of information so he could put it together in a unified story. The plots depicted in his article comes from about thirty images for each of the sixty-five glaciers. It was not as clean as it is now, it started with scattered data that he then had to turn in to a coherent plot. Bringing us to the second hardest part, treating it like a puzzle and figuring out what order things needed to go in and removing the bad data to leave behind the data that could tell something.
         We then dived a little deeper into him and what has gotten him to where he is today. We began by asking if he had any other intentions of becoming something other than an earth scientist. He said of course as any little kid would, but his dream was to become a “mow mow man” (a landscaper). As he got older he knew he was interested in science and started off as a biology major and later switched to geology in the attempts to avoid math and physics. He later discovered there is arguably more math and physics involved, but liked it and pursued a Geology degree. Even after figuring out what degree path he wanted to take he still did not have a plan on what to do next for a career and considered going into an industry for satellite data, environmental consulting, and many more. We then asked who his inspiration was or favorite scientist. Instead of giving us a cliché answer he responded with something a little more thoughtful and explained why his academic advisor Bob Anderson and a Glacioologist, Gwenn Flowers are his favorite scientist. Both advisors have two different approaches, however, he highly respects both and looks up to their approaches on being a mentor.
         Dr. Armstrong also explained to us the adaptability an academic scientist must have to find a job and why it can be so hard for someone to find a job. They must find a university, that has that particular department and a spot available for someone that fits their criteria. Someone who wants to be an academic scientist must be willing to adapt and have decided what they want for example, willing to live anywhere in the world and chase the job. This all worked out great for Dr. Armstrong because when asked what his favorite hobbies are he said they were rock climbing, biking, hiking, skiing and just being outside, which are great hobbies to have when you live in Boone. He was then asked what his favorite thing to teach was and ironically, he answered that he likes the classes that involve math because even though he thought he was bad at math he got better with practice and learned it was not an innate feature.
         We ended our interview with asking what advice would he give to a student who wanted to become a scientist.  He responded with that you must take math and physics, but you can get better at it and the math classes are often harder than what you will be applying in the field. More importantly, he explained that you must get over the hurdles, get involved in research and be curious because this is a field you must pursue the answers to your questions.
Again thank you so much to Dr. Armstrong for being so open and flexible with us! 

Here is also a link to his article:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2017GL074370

 Here is more information about him: 

https://sites.google.com/appstate.edu/warmstrong/