We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Rodgers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project that I have worked on thus-far has been growing the @lehigh.oceans Instagram. I am currently a PhD student at Lehigh University and have always been interested in science communication. When the Lehigh Oceans Research Center launched in January of this year, I knew that I had an opportunity to share all of the interesting research that we do with the Instagram community. In the past six or so months, I have grown our audience to over 300 followers and collaborated with accounts I have always looked up to, such as @whoi.ocean and @dykanite. This is an ongoing project, and I am so excited to see where I can take it over the course of my PhD!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a marine geochemist, which is a fancy way of saying that I study the chemistry of deep-sea hot springs called hydrothermal vents (think Yellowstone but at the very bottom of the ocean). To collect samples for my research, I go on month-long research “cruises” where my team and I use robots and submarines to collect rocks and water from the seafloor. In fact, I have been 1.5 miles below the sea surface using human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin! I have always known that I wanted to study the ocean, but it is truly a combination of hard work, passion, networking, and a little bit of luck that I have the position that I do. When I decided to start my personal science communication Instagram (@geochemjess), it came from a place of wanting to share my research with the world and to encourage young people to go into STEM. My goal with the Instagram (and in life) is to make science less intimidating and show that science is for everyone.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have two primary Instagrams that I run: my personal scicomm account @geochemjess and the Lehigh Oceans Research Center account @lehigh.oceans. I have built both accounts through collaborations with other popular science communicators. I have been lucky to know some of them personally, so when I began my accounts, I had some support. Of course, not everyone starting out is going to have the same experience, so my biggest advice is to reach out to other accounts that you admire and share your goals. 9/10 times, they would be happy to share a post or promote you. The scicomm community is extremely uplifting and encouraging! I think we understand that everyone has a unique voice and can contribute interesting content to the broader community.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Interacting with my followers and sharing my research are both extremely rewarding. I understand that my day job is unique, so getting to share that with people who are as interested in it as I am is really special. I take a lot of pride in sharing digestable pieces of information that shed light on active research happening within the Lehigh Oceans Research Center and my own research interests. I am usually posting information about ecosystems that some people don’t think about or don’t know exist, so the ability to reach hundreds of people per post is so meaningful to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lehighoceans.org
• Instagram: @geochemjess, @lehigh.oceans
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/jessica-c-rodgers

Image Credits

Nicole Pittoors, Qhira Bonds