Hope Jahren is the “New York Times Best Seller” author of Lab Girl, a memoir about a woman in science and a lifelong love and study of plants. Dr. Jahren is a geochemist and geobiologist at the University of Oslo where she studies living and fossil organisms and how they are chemically linked to the global environment. In her blog, #hopejahrensurecanwrite, she shares anecdotes and thoughts about the interactions between women and men in academia. She is a creative advocate in lifting negative stereotypes of women and girls in science, and started a social media campaign that encouraged girls to tweet photos of their hands conducting science experiments. Dr. Jahren received her Ph.D. in soil science from the University of California, Berkeley. She has won many prestigious awards in the field, including the James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union. In 2016, Time Magazine named her one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People.”

Born: 1969

Hometown: Austin, MN

Education: Ph.D. in Soil Science

Occupation: Paleobiologist and geochemist

Expeditions: Arctic Canada, Southeastern United States and Ireland

Favorite Place: Oslo Fjord, Norway

Best Discoveries: Plants don’t sweat because they are too hot – they sweat because they are trying to grow!

Favorite Item In The Field: A very dull knife

Personal Hero: Becky Sharp

Hobbies: Swimming with my Chesapeake Bay Retriever

Books: Lab Girl; The Story of More

Websites: hopejahrensurecanwrite.com;http://jahrenlab.com/

Advice: Your hands are at their most beautiful when they’re covered in soil.