Celebrate All Scientists: Carolina Vera, PhD
March is Women’s History Month, and LSC celebrates leading climate scientist Dr. Carolina Vera.
Dr. Carolina Vera’s fascination with weather began when she was just a little kid. Her mom pointed out the marvels of such natural phenomena as heavy storms and cloud formation in their native Argentina. In school, she became a real wiz at math and physics, too. So in college, she combined her passion for weather and her knack for the sciences to pursue a degree in meteorology.
When she began work on her PhD at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), she began to see a pronounced difference in the way her male professors treated her compared with their treatment of her male colleagues. One professor even told her: “I don’t want you to contradict me in public.”
Although such discrimination was a bit discouraging, Vera took advantage of every opportunity that came her way. She was frequently the only woman scientist in a meeting or on a committee, but her specialized knowledge of climate variability became well-known to her fellow meteorologists.
Vera’s research focuses on climate variability and simulation — from monsoons to rainfall and heatwaves — and how these models can inform our capacity for climate resilience.
Now, in addition to being a professor at her alma mater, UBA, she serves as Vice Chair of Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This group examines the physical science behind past, present, and future climate change. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPCC was founded in 1988 by the United Nations and plays a key role in global climate protection policy. She makes sure to encourage other women scientists as much as possible in her leadership role.
“I have been very fortunate to meet amazing women trying to make progress in science,” says Vera. “It has been easy for me to encourage and empower them in their career, just by explicitly recognizing their excellent skills and aptitudes.”
