Current Fellows
Rachel Phillips
2025–2026 GSA Science Communication Senior Fellow
Rachel Phillips
Rachel Phillips is a National Science Foundation STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Instructor at the University of South Carolina. She received her Ph.D. in geological sciences from the University of Texas at El Paso, where she conducted lab-based research to improve reconstructions of Earth's ancient atmospheric and oceanic conditions by strengthening the reliability and precision of palaeoceanographic proxies. Her postdoctoral research aims to increase geoscience enrollment and engagement through identifying and transforming misperceptions of geoscience.
Alongside her research, Rachel works to promote global inclusivity and engagement in the field through her YouTube channel, GEO GIRL, on which she shares educational geoscience videos. Having posted nearly 300 videos with over 3.5 million views from around the globe, Rachel has made significant progress toward improving the accessibility and perceptions of geoscience. As a GSA Science Communication Senior Fellow, she hopes to collaborate with other members of the geoscience community to promote the diversity of ongoing geoscience projects to her global audience with the goal of increasing public understanding of and engagement in the field.
Rudy Molinek
2025–2026 GSA Science Communication Fellow
Rudy Molinek
Rudy Molinek is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an experienced science communicator who works in both audio and writing. His research delves into deep-sea sediment from the North Atlantic Ocean to understand how ice sheets and sea level have changed over the past 140,000 years. As a science communicator, he works to tell stories that showcase the wonder and importance of our connection to the Earth system.
In 2021, he launched his podcast, Under Our Feet, which explores the geologic forces and events that shape the world around us. The first season focused on the surprising geologic history of Wisconsin, and the second season looks at the history, science, and impacts of acute PFAS pollution in groundwater. This work won the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
In 2024, he was a AAAS Mass Media Fellow with Smithsonian magazine, where he wrote about subjects as varied as deep-sea scientific drilling, moonquakes, glacial lake outburst floods, and museum taxidermy.
About the Fellowship
The Science Communication Fellowship offered by the Geological Society of America provides a dynamic
eleven-month journey for science writers, journalists, or scientists passionate about sharing their knowledge.
Participants will immerse themselves in an enriching environment, working closely with GSA's marketing and
communications team and leading members to hone their skills and expand their professional networks. This
fellowship is an extraordinary chance to engage deeply with the scientific community and enhance one's
communicative impact to the non-scientific community.
With funding from the GSA Foundation's Bruce and Karen Clark fund, the goal of the
Fellowship is to help improve communication of geoscience knowledge between the members of GSA and the
non-scientific community.
Fellowship candidates should understand how to interview authors to capture the significance of their work for
non-scientific audiences and translate technical research papers into well-developed and compelling content
including press releases, blog articles, and podcasts.
The Fellow will assist in developing a content calendar that will feature various mediums and cadence of
content for the duration of the Fellowship term, which will be selected from the Society’s top-rated,
peer-reviewed geoscience journals and from abstracts submitted by scientists to the extensive technical program
for the GSA Annual Meeting.
The Fellow will also help staff the onsite Newsroom at the GSA Annual Meeting, assist members of the media
covering the meeting, pitch stories to local and national media outlets, interview innovative and newsworthy
science authors, and mentor student interns considering a career in science communication.