Meg A. Mole Interview with Allison Chartrand

In honor of this year’s Chemists Celebrate Earth Week theme, “Glaciers: Hot Topic, Cool Chemistry!”, I traveled to Greenbelt, Maryland to meet Dr. Allison Chartrand. Dr. Chartrand is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Cryosphere Lab. 

I asked Dr. Chartrand to tell me about her work. “I use computers to understand data about the earth,” she told me. “I try to learn how climate change is affecting glaciers. Glaciers are like rivers of ice that are found in very cold places. I study data about how fast glaciers move and how thick they are. As the climate gets warmer, glaciers tend to melt more, move faster, and get thinner. The water that melts from the glaciers causes the sea level to rise. To do my work, I don’t need any special equipment other than a computer, because all my data is ‘digital,’ meaning it is stored as computer files.”

What does Dr. Chartrand enjoy most about her job? “I really like how I can meet lots of different people,” she replied. “Glaciers are very hard to get to, because they are only found in Antarctica at the South Pole, Greenland near the North Pole, and very tall mountains. So all over the world, scientists like me must work together to get information about the glaciers. I also get to travel a lot to talk with other scientists and non-scientists about glaciers. I hope to be able to travel to glaciers to get new kinds of data in the future,” she shared.

Growing up, Dr. Chartrand’s favorite subjects in school were math and music. She explained how this has helped in her career. “Math and music are kind of similar because understanding them is like knowing a new language – either a language of numbers or one of musical notes. Knowing about these languages also helps me learn other new languages that I use in my job. For example, the language of physics describes how glaciers move, and the language of computer coding helps me analyze data,” she said.

“What made you go into science?,” I asked Dr. Chartrand. “I wanted to use information about the earth to help people,” she explained. 

“Many parts of the earth, especially glaciers, are changing very fast because of climate change, and I want to help people understand and prepare for the effects of climate change, like sea level rise. I have always really liked nature, looking at maps, and solving puzzles. My science lets me explore all these interests while I learn important information about glaciers.”

Everything I learned about glaciers was very interesting, but I still had one question: how does this apply to a child’s life? “Solving these mysteries is like solving a puzzle,” she said, “and I must put together bits of information in ways that no one else has thought of before. It’s a lot like when you learn to ride a bike, and you start wondering about all the new places you can go, how fast you can get there, and what tricks you can try. Science is all about asking, ‘what if?’, and gathering information to find the answers.”