Student Profile

Pursuing Science, from California to Korea and Antarctica

Growing up on the San Andreas Fault in a town that refers to itself as “the earthquake capital of the world,” it was only natural that Andrea Balbas would develop an interest in the Earth and a healthy respect for the forces that govern it. She recalls preparing for a volleyball meet in her high school gymnasium in Hollister, CA, in 1989 when the devastating Loma Prieta quake struck. In horror, she watched as an enormous space heater suspended from the ceiling shook loose and narrowly missed crushing one of her teammates.

It was years before Balbas, 35, felt she could afford college, but she is now enthusiastically engaged (she has a 3.97 GPA) in pursuit of her BS in geology, which she anticipates receiving in fall 2009. Her graduation, however, will be delayed a semester because this fall she is joining Steve Pekar (Earth & Environmental Sciences) and two other QC students on an NSF-funded expedition to Antarctica. She will participate in Pekar’s continuing research as part of the international Antarctic Drilling Program that is probing the Earth’s crust to learn more about the geologic history of the South Pole, research that may yield important findings on the nature of global warming.

What does her family think of the trip? “My family thinks I’m crazy,” Balbas told the Queens Chronicle in a recent feature that described how she will spend months sleeping in an unheated tent at the coldest place on Earth.

Before that, however, Balbas has two other important research opportunities in her immediate future. This summer she will participate in the NASA Academy at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Before that, she will travel to Busan, South Korea this month to participate in a Science Steering and Evaluation Panel of the Independent Ocean Drilling Program, an international marine research program that explores the Earth’s history and structure as recorded in seafloor sediments and rocks.

Balbas has been conducting research under the supervision of Cecilia McHugh (Earth & Environmental Sciences) on sediment core samples McHugh retrieved from the floor of Long Island Sound as part of an NSF-funded study. Balbas’s participation on the panel is the result of her receiving a fellowship for minority students (she’s of Mexican ancestry) from the Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science Professional Development program.

Balbas readily admits she’s come a long way from the California farmlands of her youth. A talented writer and recipient of the Queens College Writing Award in 2007, she will no doubt generate some fascinating tales based on her experiences as a QC student.