-Life as a Scientific Explorer | Educator-
Introducing
Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña is a scientist, part-time professor, mountaineer and explorer. However, as you’ll soon learn, those tags only reveal a fraction of who she is and what she does.
Scientist
She is Head of Communications for the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Centre at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Explorer | Mountaineer
Further, she is a certified polar guide and works in the Arctic and Antarctica with Aurora Expeditions, as a geology / glaciology / climate change expert.
With such a deep reservoir of scientific knowledge, she consults on various research projects. Two recent undertakings include assisting an all-women team doing work near the Arctic; and the other with a young female climber on K2.
Education
I might add that Dr. Horodyskyj Peña also manages to find time to teach introductory and upper-level environmental science classes as a visiting assistant professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Curiosity Driven Projects & Initiatives
Dr. Horodyskyj Peña’s innate curiosity and drive to learn more about the world around her propels her forward in a lot of different directions.
By the time she had turned 23 years, she had already traveled to and worked on all 7 continents.
She has also climbed famed mountains like Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, as well as others in places like Argentina, Chile and Nepal in a quest to collect scientific data.
Her PhD investigated ice mass loss on rock-covered glaciers in the Himalayas, particularly the Khumbu valley (Everest region) in Nepal.
A Fulbright fellowship afforded her the opportunity to live abroad in Nepal in 2013/14, where she traveled over 1600 km (1000 miles) on foot collecting data on glacial changes in high alpine regions.
Space Research
To close things out Dr. Horodyskyj Peña has even been part of projects related to space research. In fact, she has helped with the testing of new commercial space suits to acting as a mission commander for an on-the-ground deep space high-fidelity analog mission to an asteroid.
Reasons to Listen
This talk represents an inspirational look at what is possible within both personal and professional realms when passion and purpose align.
This will be a talk worth listening to for:
- those interested in finding out how they too can combine their love for nature and science into a successful career
- those curious about the practical elements of combining research and exploration
- those who are looking for inspiration within their own lives
Listeners will come away with insights on:
- the beauty of exploration
- the melding of curiosity and exploration
- scientific polar expeditions
- Dr. Horodyskyj Peña discovering a role model in her youth when it came to exploration, mountaineering and scientific discovery and how that influenced her own career path
- her goal of hopefully inspiring others
- giving back through mentorship to young women who are also similarly driven
- getting into the environmental action career space
- the power of storytelling within science as opposed to trying spark action via data points alone
- how to effectively engage and spread awareness of issues
- how she philosophically approaches and battles environmental action inertia
- what meaning she gives to her career and work
- an unreal experience which ultimately hooked her into a career within environmental study and exploration
- the adventures of her work
- insights on some other projects her work has allowed her to experience (space training and space simulation experiments)
- thoughts on tech within the environmental action space
- use of AI within the environmental space and it’s current limits
- much more!
A Memorable Quote from the Episode:
“We have this world of gadgets and distractions. It’s nice sometimes to be able to sit in nature and have it reveal its secrets to us.”
–Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña
Check out the Video Conversation:
For those who desire to view the full video conversation of this discussion, you can do so via Youtube.
Discover More
For those interested in learning more about Dr. Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña and her work, be sure to check out her website and offerings at Science in the Wild. You can also find her on:
Keep Listening!
I hope you enjoyed the episode. For more, check out additional episodes here!
