Normally Camille Li works as an associate professor at the Centre for Climate Dyamics at the Bjerknes Centre. But in January she left Bergen for New York.
- I'm here for three months as a Tharp Fellow with the Division of Ocean and Climate Physics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, Li says.
The Marie Tharp Visiting Fellowship programme is part of an initiative at the Earth Institute at Columbia University to promote the advancement of female scientists. It provides an opportunity to spend 2-3 months at Columbia University and its affiliated institutions, as well as up to $25,000 of research funding.
- Exciting place
- I'm working with other scientists here on understanding sea ice and ocean stratification in the polar and subpolar oceans. I'm also committed to investigating every craft IPA and ramen bar I come across, Li explains.
- How do you find it so far?
- Lamont is an exciting and stimulating place. There are interesting seminars and colloquia almost every day, an enormous community of atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, glaciologists, geologists, geochemists and geophysicists keen to discuss climate, as well as a beautiful campus with wild deer and running trails that connect to a nearby state park... and the cafeteria serves warm lunch.
Many advantages
She thinks there are many advantages of going abroad for a while, including meeting new people, strengthening existing collaborations, starting new collaborations, learning to feel comfortable in other work cultures, and getting to know who else does research related to hers.
- Have you learnt new things to bring home to your work here?
- Ask me again in two months! I hope the answer is yes…
The competition to participate in the program opens early each year with an application deadline around March. Applicants must submit a research project proposal with suggestions for local hosts, so anyone thinking of applying should begin contacting potential collaborators at Lamont well ahead of time.
From the fellowship webpages: "The purpose of the award is to provide an opportunity for women scientists to conduct research at Columbia University for a period of three months. Fellows will have an opportunity to work with faculty, research staff, post docs, and graduate students during their fellowship. Marie Tharp Fellows will be appointed Visiting Scientists at Columbia...This prestigious fellowship is named after Marie Tharp, the first scientist to map details of the ocean floor on a global scale. She published the pivotal interpretation of mid-ocean ridges that was crucial to the eventual acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift."