| What do you do at the Museum?
I study a variety of meteorite groups, ranging from those originating on asteroids to those of Martian origin. The goal of my research is to decipher the processes involved in the meteorites' formation using trace element distributions in their minerals and also to determine when they were formed. From this I hope to learn more about how our solar system, and the planets and asteroids within it, were formed. My other responsibilities at the Museum involve helping to define the scientific content of exhibits, and public education and outreach activities.
 How did you get started in this field?
I've always been interested in the sciences. I enjoy physics and chemistry and biology, but what particularly interested me about the science of geology is that it is interdisciplinary, in the sense of trying to understand the workings of the Earth and other planets through applying other sciences. I enjoy the field work, too. Being able to travel all over is definitely one of the things that first drew me to geology.
Once I had my master's degree I decided to get a Ph.D. in planetary sciences because I felt I would be limiting myself by just learning about the Earth. There are other planets out there and Earth is one component of the solar system. People tend to view meteorite studies as something independent of Earth studies, but that's really not the case. Most of what we know about the beginnings of the Earth and how old it is and what it's made of comes from studying meteorites.
Where do you find the materials that you study?
 Meteorites have been falling to Earth throughout its history, so there are specimens that have been in collections for a long time. The Field Museum has one of the best collections of meteorites.
In the last three years or so, there have been active meteorite collection expeditions to areas like Antarctica and the desert regions of Australia and Africa, places where there's not much vegetation to camouflage a dark rock. Antarctica has been one of the most productive places for collecting meteorites in the last 20 years. There have been over 15,000 meteorites found there by U.S. and other international teams in the last two decades.
Antarctica is special. Not only is it easy to spot meteorites, but there is also a conveyor-belt like mechanism that concentrates meteorites in certain regions on the ice. As thick ice sheets are moving gravitationally toward the coastline, meteorites that have fallen on these ice sheets get carried along until they come up against either a mountain range or some sub-surface obstruction, and the ice starts moving upward. The high-velocity ('katabatic') winds in the Antarctic ablate the surface of this upward moving ice and meteorites reemerge in these zones. You can find hundreds of meteorites concentrated in some of these areas. It's just amazing.
What do you love about what you do?
 I love the sense of discovery, of learning something new about our very beginnings.
A lot of people may think that research in the pure sciences, which appears to have no direct applicability, is not as valuable, but I think it is the ability to ask and to attempt to answer these very basic questions that makes us human. Where did we come from? How old is the universe? How old is our solar system? How did the Earth and our solar system form?
We have an amazing amount of information about events that are so distant in the past-something like 4.5 billion years ago-it's incomprehensible to most human beings. But we have a fairly decent idea of how the solar system formed and how the elements formed that comprise you and me and everything else in the whole world. It's knowledge, and I find it very exciting. That's what I find really fascinating about my job.
Another thing I like is the educational component, which is rather different from that in university-type jobs. I participate in educating the general public (not just college-going students, but the entire cross section of society) about what we're doing and why it's important and interesting. Most of our research funding comes from taxpayer dollars, so it's important to show the people walking in the door here that their money is being well spent and that the work is worth doing.
Have you ever experienced any barriers in your career because you're a woman?
I have to say that I have not, Although in India, when I first expressed interest in going into geology, I encountered some skepticism because it was an all-male faculty in the department of geology at Panjab University and 18 of the 20 incoming students in my class were men. The general concern was regarding how I would cope with the strenuous field work and how I would manage in such a male-dominated environment. I think that was the only time that I encountered that skepticism.
I think it's definitely getting better than it used to be. When I go to conferences now, I see a lot more women than when I started out 8 years ago. Maybe 20 years from now, it won't even be an issue.
My Ph.D. advisor at Washington University was a woman. She was a rarity in her generation, and I was lucky to have her as my advisor. She made sure that everything that came out of the lab was the highest quality. She was always rigorous about that. She played a big role in shaping my scientific approach to things.
 She had to make some hard choices when she started her career in the '60s. There was no way she could have children and also have a career in this area. Fortunately I don't think I will ever be faced with that choice, but for her it was definitely the case. I don't think she would have been tenured in her department if she'd shown any distraction from her career. That was unfortunate, but things are changing.
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