Hilary Peddicord

Hilary Peddicord is the CIRES education specialist and data catalog manager for NOAA's Science On a Sphere team at the Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colorado. Science on a Sphere (SOS) is an educational tool that projects planetary data onto a sphere, creating a giant animated globe that can help explain environmental processes. SOS also has a flat-screened counterpart called SOS Explorer.

What projects or research are you working on now?

With SOS Explorer, we have been serving Science On a Sphere data on more accessible platforms. Now we are developing a mobile application that everyone will be able to download and enjoy for free. 

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Visually and stimulatingly spreading scientific literacy around the globe as well as tackling some of the most difficult questions of our time, including: How do we get people to care and act on climate change?

What does success mean to you? 

Being happy and fulfilled. Happiness is having good life balance. Fulfillment is being consistently challenged.

What’s been your favorite (or proudest) moment in your career so far? 

Presenting NOAA and environmental science to hundreds of New Yorkers every day for a week at the World Science Festival.

Looking back, what would you tell yourself when you were 12 years old? Or what advice would you give to a woman just starting out in her career?

Don’t get caught up in comparing yourself to others or trying to be good at things you don’t enjoy. Just find your you, and do it well. Following your own passions is a good path for success.