Carolina Ortiz Guerrero, Ph.D. candidate:
Hello! My name is Carolina and I am a Ph.D. Candidate in our Department. I am an international student (from Colombia) and I have been in Gainesville for three years now. Before starting my Ph.D. degree in UF I was living in Bogotá-Colombia, where I graduated as a Geoscientist in the Universidad de Los Andes and fell in love with field geology, as I was lucky to visit sites all around Colombia (from the plains to the highest in the Andes mountains ), and participating in an international field-camp program in Panama with the STRI (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute). After graduating, I was working in the SGC (Colombian Geological Survey) around earthquakes research, and also with a local environmental organization working with middle-school kids and in outdoor learning experiences.
I love exploring the world and backpacking is my favorite way of traveling. One of my favorite experiences as a traveler was backpacking South-America from Argentina to Peru, which gave me the chance to connect geological landscapes to culture and traditions. These and other trips, including my experience of living in France for a year, have encouraged me to learn other languages (French, Portuguese, and English) and pursue my education with an international perspective.
Being an international student living in Gainesville and in Florida has been a blast! Gainesville is a great place to live as a student, the UF campus is beautiful and nature is astonishing. I personally enjoy a lot the outdoors activities, and Gainesville offers a lot of it. As well, the Department of Geological Sciences is a great place to study and grow as a scientist. In these three years I have discovered (and reinforced) my research and science interests in field geology, tectonic processes, geochronology, structural geology, and science communication, in order to better understand how to do extensional tectonics work, in specific very unique places called metamorphic core complexes. My research in the Pioneer Mountains Metamorphic Core Complex in Idaho, US has taken me to travel across the US and experience backpacking adventures -with a lot of hard work- in fascinating glacial-mountain landscapes made of VERY OLD rocks.
In the last years, I have grown an interest in topics of gender equality in science education and diversity, and I have been lucky to find people around me, and organizations that give me the opportunity to discuss within a community these interests as a young scientist. The Department’s faculty, students, the outreach interest, and its labs, altogether make it an inspiring place to discover your strengths as a student allowing us to keep on learning every day more. If you are someone interested in studying here or just want to know a bit more about us, I will be happy to connect with you!