One might surmise that climatologist Kevin Trenberth dreamed of a career in the atmospheric sciences early on, but the truth might surprise you.
Larry Cornman's career path has been unpredictable, somewhat like the turbulence he loves to study. Even though he enjoyed math and science as a schoolchild, his diverse interests pulled him in unexpected directions, such as living in a Zen Buddhist monastery after graduating high school.
Laura Pan describes herself as an "accidental" scientist. She never intentionally set out to pursue a science career. Rather, she began with an interest in theoretical physics and found herself drawn along as adventures unfolded, first in remote sensing and more recently in high-altitude research flights.
Some scientists aspire to work on experiments in exotic locations. Lou Verstraete didn't have a choice.
From an early age, Mari enjoyed making things work, taking them apart and trying to put them back together, but she was most fascinated by the interaction between nature and humans – particularly where water was concerned. Today she works at NCAR's Engineering for Climate Extremes Partnership (ECEP) at the intersection of her interests and talents.
Marika Holland recalls that when she entered graduate school at the University of Colorado, she had "the fuzzy idea of doing something with climate." She left graduate school with a sharp focus on the role of sea ice in the climate system.
It's no fluke that Matt Kelsch is a meteorologist. He was so interested in weather as a child that his fourth grade teacher actually wrote him special tests on the subject.
As a graduate student in physics, Maura Hagan found herself frustrated and on the verge of dropping out. "I wanted to quit but the chair of the physics department would not allow me to," she recalls. "He was a profound mentor. He said, 'You may take a leave of absence, but you come back to me in one year.'"
Talea Mayo is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and has been working on increasing the accuracy of computer models by incorporating data into hurricane forecasts.
Tim Brown has been interested in stars ever since he was a child reading about the launch of Sputnik and other satellites in the 1950s.