Julie Carol Libarkin is a professor of Earth Sciences and Director of the Geocognition Laboratory at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. Her research considers how people understand and make decision about the planet. She is a Fellow of the

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitchco ...

. She also researches and addresses inequality in academia, and tracks academic sexual misconduct cases.

Early life and education

Libarkin studied physics and geology at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...

and graduated in 1994. She moved to the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

for her graduate studies, where she studied palaeomagnetism and cosmogenic isotopes. Upon graduation, Libarkin switched her focus to tectonic and geocognition.

Research and career

Libarkin was appointed a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. She was made a Research Associate in 2002. In 2003 Libarkin was appointed Assistant Professor at

Ohio University Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...

. She moved to

in 2006, where she was made Director of Educational Research in 2011. She was promoted to Professor in 2016, where she Directs the Georecognition Research Laboratory. She investigates how people see and understand the Earth, and how this impacts the decisions they make.

Academic service

Libarkin is involved with research and mentoring to tackle inequality in academia. She has created a database of reported sexual misconduct cases. As of 2020, the database includes over 1,000 cases – all of which included substantiated reports, institutional findings and legal outcomes. Libarkin has investigated sexual harassment in the physics undergraduate community. She serves on the

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...

Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. She has called for job applicants to be required to disclose whether they have had formal or informal findings of misconduct against them. Libarkin has been involved with the transformation of science education, including creating a mechanism to better understand the interactions of science and policy. She serves as a member of the Create for STEM initiative.

Awards and honours

* 2008

Lorena V. Blinn Endowed Teaching Award * 2014 Michigan State University Global Innovation Fellow * 2015 Elected Fellow of the

* 2017 Geological Society of America Top Geoscience Paper of the Year * 2018 Association of Women Geoscientists Exchange Award * 2019 Commission on the Status of Women Top Paper in the Open Category

Selected publications

* * * Libarkin has served as Editor-in-Chief of the '' Journal of Geoscience Education''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Libarkin, Julie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American geophysicists Women geophysicists American earth scientists American women geologists Michigan State University faculty University of Arizona alumni American women academics 21st-century American women