Dr. Melodie Kao, Part 2

In this interview with Dr. Melodie Kao, she discusses the barriers to STEM equality and the importance of boundary setting in scientific education. She emphasizes that while technical skills are important, non-technical skills such as emotional awareness, conflict management, and boundary setting play a crucial role in fostering successful careers in science. Dr. Kao shares her experiences with teaching these human-centered skills to students through workshops and integrating them into formal scientific education. She also highlights the issue of "deficit thinking" prevalent in education and how it perpetuates systemic biases, disadvantaging those who do not have equal opportunities to learn non-technical skills. Dr. Kao's research focuses on exo-volcanism, which opens up possibilities for discovering life outside our solar system and understanding the interior dynamics of planets.