Get to know Lauren Paige Seaby aka Erin Brockovich
One of the three new faces at Environmental Risk
As a part of starting up the new strategic research initiative Environmental Risk, as well as the new M.Sc. in Environmental Risk, three new staff members have been employed. A formal announcement of the hires has been made here. However, as we would also like to introduce and welcome the three additions to the staff in a more personal way, we have interviewed each of them. In the following Lauren Paige Seaby will be the first to be presented.
Lauren surprises me, as she turns up for our interview meeting. As a foreigner, I had imagined her walking or arriving by bus. Instead she appears around the corner on nothing less than a pink eighties bike. The thing is, I didn’t do my homework well enough, because Lauren might very well have grown up in the US, but she has lived in Copenhagen for about four years already. And she has adapted to the city of bikes; her bike leaves no doubt about that.
It immediately becomes clear to me that the interview is going to be easy and enjoyable, as Lauren comes across as smiling, straightforward and easygoing. She starts out with explaining, that she is from King’s Mountain, a small mountain town close to San Francisco. But even though she grew up in the middle of nature, working with the environment was not her original destination.
“I thought I was going to study creative writing. I thought so right until the day I attended a physical geography course to fulfill the general requirements at my first year of college. That course opened my mind, then I took a geomorphology course and a water resource course, and just knew: This was what I want to study. Half a year earlier I didn’t even know what a hydrologist was, now I was determined to become one. Having grown up in California, where half the state is placed in a dessert, the importance of water seemed evident… and water simply fascinated me.”
The fascination with water ended up with a B.A. in Geography and Environmental Resources from Western Washington University in 2001. Followed by a M.Sc. in Geography and Watershed Science from San Diego State University in 2006. In between she worked as natural hazards and vulnerability analyst in Hawaii and a field researcher in Puerto Rico. After finishing the master she was hired as an associate in the San Francisco Department of Environment’s Clean Air Program. All in all, a whole lot of moving around, but that was not by coincidence: “If I have to define one thing that makes me happy, it is adventure. I’m just the kind of person who says more yes, than no. Many would call me a bit naïve I guess. But that’s ok.”
And adventure she got. Because, apart from studying and working at places most of us dream about, Lauren got what many environmental students would think of as a dream job. She got hired as a staff scientist for Sher Leff LLP, a law firm started by two progressive lawyers, to help cities, water districts, and well owners whose water supplies are contaminated. The Firm's mission is to hold chemical manufacturers, rather than taxpayers, accountable for the costs of treating, replacing or cleaning up contaminated water. So there you go; a real life Erin Brockovich.
Adventure was also the reason why Lauren ended up in Copenhagen: “My job at the law firm was thrilling and fantastic, but after two years I was longing to get back to something more research intensive. Somewhere along the way I came across the opening for a PhD position at Copenhagen University, and I simply took the chance. I paid of the last of my student loans and went off. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was surprised; In the US a PhD is an expensive and long degree to take, often putting your life on hold whilst acquiring it. But here in Copenhagen it was completely different: I had a health insurance, a salary and five weeks of vacation! I seriously thought they were joking with me during the job-interview. It sounded too good to be true.”
Lauren fell for the Danish way of living. So much that when her PhD came to an end, she applied for the Postdoc job at Environmental Risk. “I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do a postdoc, mostly because becoming more specialized can also be a bit isolating. But with the interdisciplinary approach at Environmental Risk, this wasn’t an issue. This approach fits well with how I like to work, both as a person and professionally, as it opens for possibilities of interacting with others and exploring new research areas. On top of that, the institute does excellent research in hydrological impacts monitoring and modeling, the area that interests me the most.”
At Environmental Risk Lauren will be working with terrestrial hydrological modeling of nitrogen leaching from estuary catchments into the fjords, considering multiple land use management strategies and projected climate changes. This will (hopefully) incorporate input from social scientists at the institute in developing relevant land use scenarios, and with biologists in coupling the hydrological model with their coastal and ecosystem models. Also, she is looking very much forward to be working with the Master’s students on their projects, as she finds enthusiasm to be contagious;)
Lauren will be joining us from October. We are looking forward to having her as a part of the team and welcoming her warmly.