Fatima Husain grew up in the heart of the Midwest, surrounded by agriculture. 'Every time you left your home, you saw fields of corn and soybeans. And it was really quite beautiful,' she says. During elementary school, she developed her own love of gardening and cultivated a small plot in her family's backyard. 'Having the freedom to make a mess, experiment, and see things grow was very impactful,' says Husain, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and a Hugh Hampton Young Fellow. This experimentation in the garden was the seed that blossomed into her fascination with science. 'When you think about gardening and agriculture in Iowa,' she says, 'you think about soil and its origins, which led me to geology and geochemistry and all these interdisciplinary fields that play a role in the Earth sciences.' Husain has maintained that scientific curiosity throughout her academic career. As a graduate student in EAPS'...
learn more
