“When I was five, my grandpa gave me a book about Heinrich Schliemann, the archaeologist who discovered the ancient city of Troy. I couldn’t believe there were jobs that didn’t entail going to an office from 9 to 5 — instead, people traveled, made discoveries, and invented tools! I started to look at who had these jobs and was fascinated by Jacques Cousteau and the space shuttle flights of Franklin Chang-Díaz — a Costa Rican, like myself, who became the first Latino to join @NASA’s astronaut corps. I didn’t understand then that what they all had in common was #science, but I was sure I wanted to lead that kind of a nontraditional, adventurous life. Eventually, I decided to study mechanical engineering because I recognized that #technology enables exploration. Later, I received my master’s and Ph.D. in oceanography, doing research in the Arctic Ocean. But my ‘eureka!’ moment arrived in 2015 while on a #research ship. I was working in the Bering Strait, navigating between the Russian and American islands at the narrowest point. I thought about the critical processes the world was deciding at the time: the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In that moment, I had an awakening about the geopolitical influence that science has and the power that scientific collaborations have in bringing countries together. I came to know that this emerging field is called ‘science diplomacy,’ and immediately envisioned myself as a bridge between international decisionmakers and scientists. In fact, when we work in fragile environments, we become ambassadors of planetary urgency, and it is our duty to be effective translators of those discoveries, so global decisions can be guided by evidence. Having dreamt as a little girl of going to extreme environments, no place has made me feel more challenged or more determined than my role as a climate negotiator for #CostaRica. It is in that intense multilateral sphere, surrounded by lawyers and diplomats, where I hope scientific knowledge can be turned into large-scale action.” - Melania Guerra Carrillo MPP ’21.