Ediacaran Fauna Fossils: Meet the Scientist

Take a minute to meet Mary Droser, who you heard in the Ediacaran Fauna Fossil podcast. Learn what she loves about science.

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Mary would like to hear from you. Submit your questions here and check back for answers in the coming weeks.

Mary Droser in the field and with her family. Back row: son Ian Hughes, Mary and daughter Emmy Hughes. Front row: niece Mary Dzaugis and nephews Peter Dzaugis and Matt Dzaugis.

Where do you work?

Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Riverside.

What do you study?

I am a evolutionary paleoecologist working on the role of ecology in the evolution of life on this planet.

What are three titles you would give yourself?

paleontologist, mother, community activist

What do you like to do when you are not working?

I love what I do for a living and much of what I do, I would choose to do even if it were not my job.  When I am not doing paleontology,  I spend as much time as I can in or at the ocean, diving, boogie boarding, reading a book on the beach...I love to goof off, particularly outside, with my kids and family and I spend a bunch of my time working on issues that are important to me - sometimes, political, sometimes educational, sometimes community-wide.

What do you like most about science?

Doing science is like solving puzzles. There are meaningful, intellectually challenging problems that can only be solved doing science. Science has, and will continue to, solve some of the biggest issues facing society today be they, climate change, earthquakes, disease and so on.