Love and Eos make the world go round

Abstract

After 15 years of teaching environmental science, health, and safety at the College of Engineering, University of Oklahoma (not far from the Holocene Meers Fault), it was time for a change. I took a deep breath, gave up a tenured faculty position, and moved to Boulder, Colo., to work for a well‐known geological society, where my office looked out on steep slabs of Pennsylvanian sandstone at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. Seven months later, I realized there was a new neighbor next door—literally on the other side of the wall of my condo. Remembering my Oklahoma manners, I went next door to welcome the new neighbor. Alan Nelson answered the door and was momentarily speechless when I introduced myself as Deborah Nelson. He quickly recovered and invited me in. We began one of those halting conversations that proceeded until I spied a copy of Eos on the coffee table. “You must be a geologist!” I proudly exclaimed, since I knew that Eos is the weekly publication of AGU. Once again, Alan, who is indeed a geologist, was at a loss for words—but with this happy discovery, the conversation was off and running.