91制片厂

Editor's Note: This is the latest installment in a series featuring 91制片厂 faculty telling their stories in their own words.

Mary Stampone, associate professor of geography, state climatologist

"My grandfather loved The Weather Channel. It was on nonstop at his house. That was the start of my interest in everything outside.

I was always curious about nature. If I wasn鈥檛 in school or in bed, I was in the woods. I grew up in Omer, Michigan, a small town of about 400 people. My parents owned a local store. When I got home from school or work, I鈥檇 grab the dog and we鈥檇 go to the river. We鈥檇 walk or sit; I鈥檇 make a pine needle house and would sit and watch the bugs. And I鈥檇 take home rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. My dad had a flower bed and every rock I took home had to be saved there. When they moved, I made them take my rocks with them.

I was an A student in high school, but I didn鈥檛 like science and I hated math even though I was good at it. I got ribbons at science fairs, but I wasn鈥檛 really encouraged 鈥� no one told me I couldn鈥檛 do it, but no one said that I should, either. I had a great English teacher who encouraged me to write. So, for a while I thought I wanted to be a journalist, then maybe a lawyer.

When it was time to go to college, I was planning on prelaw. I hadn鈥檛 really thought about whether I鈥檇 be good at it, I was just thinking I wouldn鈥檛 have to take math and science again. It turned out they were both required.

I went to Albion College, a small liberal arts school in Michigan. I decided to get the math and science courses out of the way first thing. For science, I chose geology because I鈥檇 always liked rocks. The professor was so good 鈥� not just a good researcher but a good teacher. He wrote a note on a lab assignment that said, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e good at this. Let me know if you want to talk.鈥�

In college, I started to get into climate change; I had been reading about it and was really interested in the issues. Senior year, my paleontology professor invited me to work with him and helped me design my honors thesis on paleoclimatology. I looked at the climate during the last ice age using fossils of certain critters that have relatives around today. You can track climate changes by where they used to be and where they are now, and whether it was warmer or colder during those periods.

When I was looking into graduate school, I decided I wanted to focus on how the Earth鈥檚 surface interacts with the atmosphere. Turns out geography is the discipline that does that; it鈥檚 about how all environments interact over time, and it explores the physical, social and cultural aspects of a place. I went to the University of Delaware; my master鈥檚 is in geography and my Ph.D. is in climatology.听听

My first job was at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. I taught the geography of the U.S. and Canada, conservation and introduction to atmosphere. I found my job at 91制片厂 through a posting on the Association听of American听Geographer鈥檚 website. When I saw it, I knew it was exactly what I wanted. I started here in 2008.

When I was really little, we鈥檇 go up to Lake Huron and I鈥檇 sit with my grandfather and he鈥檇 tell me all kinds of things about nature.听He taught me how to count the distance of lightning during a thunderstorm. I thought that was the coolest thing. Sometimes I think, if I hadn鈥檛 taken that required science class my first year of college, where would I be now?"

Stampone teaches introduction to weather, natural hazards and disasters and climate and society. She听is an affiliate faculty member of Earth sciences and the New Hampshire state climatologist.