At my "office" in Mariposa, photo taken by Caroline Korn |
I am now working on the 7th
major version of my memoir. Over the past several months, I have received both
verbal and written comments on older drafts. Every day, I tinker a bit with the
writing, taking into account what folks have suggested to make the book more
interesting and understandable to a wider audience.
I have been helped with the “Pitch”
by Cat Jarman who is currently writing her own book “River Kings”. I met Cat
in 2014 in Kiel, Germany, at an archeological isotope meeting. She was just finishing
up her PhD work with Brian Popp, University of Hawaii. Cat’s dissertation work
is on the isotope ecology of people from Easter Island—a topic that I’d worked
on earlier with Noreen Tuross. Cat and I met again in 2016 at the Marilyn
Madness workshop at the Geophysical Lab and share some life experiences.
Marilyn (left), Cat Jarman (next), Kate Freeman (far right), Marilyn Madness, 2016 |
I’ve received many line-by-line
edits from people including Valery Terwilliger, Merri Wolf, and Roxane Bowden. Valery
has been a tough and valued reviewer of my writing for many years. She went through
both major manuscripts—the Geochemical
Perspectives article and then the memoir. She made me make hard choices of
what to include. Merri Wolf, now retired, was for 2 and a 1/2 decades a Library Technical Assistant at the Broad Branch Road
Carnegie campus. She has talents as a playwright and satirist and encouraged
me to put more “Marilyn” into the writing. Roxane, my former lab manager at the
Geophysical Lab, wrote a commentary that I have largely pirated and revised
under the section “Who will be interested in this book and why.” Her insights
into what would make this a more understandable book for a wider audience have
been invaluable.
Chris, Roxane and Pete Bowden with Marilyn, Joshua Tree National Park, 2018 |
Dave Ardell, colleague from UC
Merced and neighbor, came by one afternoon and gave me his personal impressions
about what he’d read so far. Dave’s an evolutionary biochemist who loves to
think about arcane scientific issues. He basically told me—you need to write
more, not less. Don’t sideline things—mainstream them. Great comments for me to
think about. I’ve been working on interweaving the science with the life stories.
In my quest to get more male
opinions, I’ve heard from Marc Fries and Bruce Curtis. Marc’s a former
collaborator on the AMASE project. He’s worked his way through the beginning
making sure my writing can be understood by people who don’t know all of those
“ologies” as he said (geology, astrobiology, ecology…). Bruce Curtis, the dad
of an Isogeochemist colleague, is a retired English professor from Michigan
State. He wanted a timeline and a glossary—which I added. He also provided
guidance on making sure I had connected the threads of my life from “quiet,
shy” to outgoing, leader. He also suggested a new title! Let’s see how this
flies.
Meanwhile, I’m no closer to finding
a publisher or an agent, although I’ve sent out several inquiries. I understand
this takes time. So, as I continue to revise, I’ll continue to send our more
queries and improve the manuscript. Have a look at my pitch and the Who and Why
and the latest table of contents. The timeline is at the end after the table of contents. Suggestions are always welcomed for topics to include in new
blogs.
Queen of the Isotopes:
Memoir of a journey in
bio-geo-chemical-science
Marilyn L. Fogel
January 17, 2020
Version 7.0
The Pitch
I aim to appeal especially to educated readers
with an interest in science, distilling complex concepts down to understandable
explanations, focusing on stable isotopes - the extraordinary, invisible factor
that binds all of these questions together: How do we find out if there is life
on other planets? How can life survive in extreme conditions? How can we track
migration in people and animals? How do humans change climate on continental
scales? My memoir will show what it's like to be at the forefront of
investigating these fascinating questions; making new discoveries whilst
challenging both established authorities and gender roles, surviving and
thriving as a woman in a male-dominated field. And finally, what happens when
life throws you the ultimate curve ball of a cruel disease just when you've
managed to smash through the glass ceiling.
Who will be interested in reading this book and why?
Everyone
who reads this book will be able to identify with some of my struggles and feel
inspired because setbacks do not need to define you or hold you back. I have
intertwined my family struggles with my professional struggles and successes
which is important because both men and women need to know that everyone has
these struggles and one can survive and thrive despite them. My story is meant to be inspiring--get up
every day and carry on! Women, especially, need to be reminded that you can
make a poor choice (even if it seemed right in the moment) and still be a
success. Everyone has that one experience, that one family member, that one bad
idea that brings worry, shame or anxiety.
Marilyn and her sister Barb, Better days, New Jersey, 2005? |
Women need
to know that the path they follow in the work world was barely there 50 years
ago, and women like me paved the way, regardless of conscious effort or
not. The struggles I faced are not
completely gone, particularly in academia and science. Back in the 70’s, 80’s
and even 90’s sexism was more obvious. Today women deal with “subtle” sexism,
sometimes harder to recognize and combat. Reading this memoir, men should see
what real sexism looks like--even men who truly believe in equality and have
the utmost respect for women but what they do still may carry subtle biases. My
story will hopefully open their eyes--even further.
My memoir
is also written to highlight the life burden women carry. A lot of ‘enlightened’ men think they know,
but they don’t really know. Sometimes
the demands placed on women need to be stated clearly, in particular why they
struggle with life balance. I have illustrated the impact a supportive partner
can have on one’s life. I have also pointed out how much women put up with and
do (for example, second and third jobs) to make their life and relationships
work. This information is even more impactful coming from a person like myself
who has had great success.
The details
I provide about what was required to make the scientific measurements I made in
the 70’s and 80’s before current instruments were designed and then fully
automated is invaluable. I have written
these sections to give non-scientists a flavor of the ingenuity required for
scientific analyses. Some younger scientists think that it’s a waste of time to
study publications more than 10 years old! So many young scientists take for
granted the instrumentation they now have at their fingertips.
Last, my
memoir also describes many of the relationships and collaborations that
faltered and didn’t work out. While this
may make some people uncomfortable, it is good to see, in writing, that failed
partnerships (both personal and professional) happen. I acknowledged it and
moved on. Young people today are much more afraid of failure and can have
unrealistic ideas about the impact of negative experiences or interpersonal
relationships. I hope my honesty will be helpful and encouraging to them.
Table of Contents
Preface
About the author
Table of Contents
Timeline
Chapter One: Introduction
Isotopes are invisible—why
have I bothered
What is an isotope?
Discovering science as a child
Chapter Two: Life as a budding scientist: The Penn State Years
Standing out as a woman scientist
Chapter Three: Graduate school in Wild Southwest Texas
Chapter Four: Early years at the Geophysical Lab
Early Personal Trials in Washington, DC
Chapter Five: Starting a new field---Biogeochemistry
Chapter Six: Discovering Life in Extreme Environments: Hot
Springs of Yellowstone National Park
Chapter Seven: Getting Started on Nitrogen Isotope Biogeochemistry
Early Years as a Female Geoscientist
Chapter Eight: Geophysical Lab History and Colleagues:
1950s to 2008
2801 Upton St., N.W., The old Geophysical Laboratory
Chapter Nine: The mysteries of Salt Marshes
Chapter Ten: Challenges and triumphs we all face
Family, Friends, and Partners
Family Triumphs and Meaningful times
Chapter Eleven: Biogeochemistry Going Full Speed
Noreen Tuross and Isotope
Tracers of Nursing and Weaning
A magnet for hurricanes: Atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the ocean
Chapter Twelve: The stable isotope laboratory
Measuring nanograms of
“stuff”
Chapter Thirteen: Adventures in the Australian Outback:
How humans can change climate with fire
Chapter Fourteen: Wages and
Attitudes for Women in Earth Science
Implicit Attitudes
The Wage Gap
Intersectionality
Chapter Fifteen: Tropical Adventures in Belize: Mangroves,
Muck, and Corals in Belize
Chapter Sixteen: Carnegie’s Lunch Club
Tried
and true recipes
My
favorite lunch club recipes
Some questionable
recipes
Chapter Seventeen: Are we
alone in the Universe? Astrobiology
Andrew Steele AKA Steelie
A ride on the Vomit Comet
Chapter Eighteen: Intersection of Biogeochemistry with the
Study of Meteorites
Chapter Nineteen: Bringing the study of Astrobiology down to
Earth:
Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expeditions (AMASE)
Chapter Twenty: Personal
Reflections and Stories
Just plain life
Mentoring notes
Women in Science before the #Metoo era
Chapter Twenty-one: My two favorite publications of all time
Chapter
Twenty-two: Don’t take yourself too seriously
Nancy Drew #1 Stories
Slatering or How to confuse pesky colleagues
Chapter Twenty-Three: Earth’s Earliest Signs of Life: If we found
it, could we recognize it?
Traveling the world to find
old rocks
Chapter Twenty-four: Shifting from Biogeochemistry to GeoEcology
Seth Newsome: Postdoc,
Colleague and Friend
Isotopes in Bird
Feathers reveal their diet and geo-location
Wombat “hunting” across Australia and a wild ride
Chapter Twenty-five: Chasing Chicken Shit Across the Eastern
Seaboard
Chapter Twenty-six: Career Advancement and Forging a new career
Leaving the Geophysical Laboratory
Nancy Drew story #2
Chapter Twenty-seven: The great battleship of the University of
California
Starting a new life at the age of 60
Campus Culture
Chapter Twenty-eight: Teaching the students I have—not the students
I thought I would have
Bobby J. Nakamoto—Mr. POM soon to be Dr. Fish
Chapter
Twenty-nine: University
of California research
Hydrogen isotopes in Amino Acids tell about an organism’s food and water
Vernal Pools and Soils
Chapter Thirty: Diagnosed
with ALS
Chapter Thirty-one: Interdisciplinary research
Journals I’ve published in
Final Project: the EDGE Institute at UC Riverside
Chapter Thirty-two: Hitting the glass ceiling—then breaking it
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Timeline
1952---Born in Camden, New Jersey on September 19; First
years spent in Collingswood, New Jersey
1955---Moved to Moorestown, New Jersey
1970---Graduated from Moorestown High School and left for
Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
1973---Graduated with B.S. with honors in Biology from Penn
State
Winter 1974---Moved to Port Aransas, Texas to begin graduate
school at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute; married Jack Estep
Fall 1974---Moved to Austin, Texas for course work in Botany
at the main campus of the University of Texas
1977---Graduated with Ph.D. in Botany and Marine Sciences in
May; Moved to Washington, DC area in July
Summer 1977---Began Carnegie Corporation Fellowship at the
Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Started work
on hydrogen isotopes
1979---Appointed Temporary Staff Member of the Geophysical
Laboratory; Constructed my first isotope vacuum line
1981---Appointed Staff Member (Senior Scientist) in
Biogeochemistry at the Geophysical Lab; Started fieldwork in Yellowstone
National Park
1982---First postdoctoral Fellow, Stephen Macko arrived at
the Geophysical Lab; Started work on nitrogen isotopes
1983---Completed studies at Yellowstone National Park;
Started work on compound specific amino acids; Separated from first husband
1985---Began sabbatical leave at Carnegie’s Department of
Plant Biology with Joseph Berry; Met future husband Christopher Swarth
1986---Married Chris Swarth; finished sabbatical on oxygen
isotopes in the atmosphere
1988---Dana Swarth, first child born; Started isotope study
on nursing infants with Noreen Tuross
1990---Began studies on atmospheric nitrogen deposition with
Hans Paerl in North Carolina
1991---Evan Swarth, second child born; Started studies on
plant decomposition; Installed first gas chromatography-combustion-isotope
system
1994---Chief Scientist on the R/V Cape Hatteras; Caught in
Hurricane Gordon at sea; Started work on the paleoclimate of Australia with
first field trip
1995---Visiting Professor Dartmouth College; Colleague
Thomas C. Hoering is honored at Hoeringfest; He passes away in July
1997---Became a member of the National Research Council’s
Space Studies Board; Moved to new home in Silver Spring, Maryland; Both
children in school fulltime
1998---Started astrobiology studies with Ken Nealson at Jet
Propulsion Lab and George Cody, Bob Hazen, and Hatten Yoder at the Geophysical
Lab; Second fieldtrip to Australia
1999---Keynote speaker at the 1st Stable Isotope
Ecology meeting in Saskatoon, Canada; Started fieldwork in Belize with Matthew
Wooller, Myrna Jacobson, and Candy Feller; Installed first automated isotope
system
2000---Carnegie Evening Lecture at Administration building
on P. St., NW; President of my son’s elementary school Parent Teacher
Association
2001---Awarded the Mellon Fellowship at the Smithsonian
Institution’s Environmental Research Center
2003--- Elected as Fellow of the Geochemical Society and
European Association of Geochemistry
2004---First trip to the Arctic with AMASE (Artic Mars
Analogue Svalbard Expedition) with Hans Amundson and Andrew Steele
2006---Fulbright Scholar, University of Oslo, Norway
2008---Chief Scientist on the R/V Lance on AMASE in Svalbard
2009---Program Director for Low Temperature Geochemistry and
Geobiology program at the National Science Foundation; Dana and Evan both at
Universities; Chris and I are empty nesters
2011---Field trip to Hudson Bay to collect Precambrian rocks
with Dominic Papineau
2012---Final year at the Geophysical Laboratory as a Staff
Member
2013---Began position as Professor of Ecology at University
of California Merced; Awarded Treibs medal for career in organic geochemistry
and elected Fellow of AAAS; Chris and I moved to Mariposa joined by Dana at the
end of the year
2015---Last international field trips to Ethiopia with
Valery Terwilliger and to Svalbard with Steelie and Liane Benning
2016---Started position as Director of the EDGE Institute
and Wilbur W. Mayhew Endowed Chair of Geoecology at University of California
Riverside; Diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in May; Evan and his
partner Meghan moved to Los Angeles
2019---Elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences;
Promoted to Distinguished Professor
2020---Retired from active service in June
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