“Hopefully I have a meaningful result for society that’s going to instigate change” – Meet Manon Verberne (she/they), PhD candidate – Department of Earth Sciences

What is your role or function at Utrecht University?

I’m a PhD student and right now I’m in my last year. My role is a bit divided between different departments and groups. Officially I’m in Earth Sciences, though I’m also working together with colleagues at Physical Geography and TNO. My research topic about is about subsidence and disentangling deep and shallow subsidence. So, I model all the different process of subsidence at different depth levels including groundwater extraction, oil and gas, drought, clay and peat.

What made you decide that you wanted to study science?

Initially when it came to choosing my bachelor, I think I knew very early on in high school that I wanted to do Earth Sciences. I really liked the topic and understanding the world around you. I care a lot about the environment, and you can really focus on that in earth sciences. I thought of doing something about climate change and helping the world further, and I thought that I could do that best doing Earth Sciences.

Why did you stay in science and pursue a PhD?

I really liked my master thesis, which is about was about subsidence too.  It’s a really interesting topic which has so much influence and affects billions of people everywhere within and outside the Netherlands, though my research mainly focuses on the Netherlands.

It’s really interesting to see how much data and knowledge exists and my research is really about bringing it all together. Then hopefully I have a meaningful result for society that’s going to instigate change.

Did you interest in science develop when you were young?

When I was in primary school, I wanted to be a baker.

I guess, though I think those more the motivation there was food driven rather than science driven!

Are you similar to people working in your team?

Difficult to say because I work with different teams, so with every team I would say different answer applies. The people that are a farther in the career ladder, they differ more from me. I think that is partly due to age of course and due to experience. The PhD level is more diverse than the higher up levels in general.

What is the most unique thing you bring to your team?

I think that I like to do many different things. I like to bring different pieces together from all different fields and understand it all. So, you see that in my research, but also in the things that I do beside it, like Young Women of Geosciences committee. I am also a volunteer at the Climate Help Desk (read more here: https://www.klimaathelpdesk.org/) and I did the Hoe?Zo! show (read more here: https://hoezoshow.nl/), which is an education based theatre show.

How has been in YWOG changed your experience and Utrecht University?

The first thing is that I learned a lot about diversity as a whole because I think everybody in our committee has somehow an experience on diversity, but everybody’s experience is different because diversity is such a wide topic. For example, with the recent events on neurodiversity and parenting and during the recent book discussion we had on both neurodiversity and African voices in the climate crisis.  These are things that I have no personal experience with, but then you broaden the sense of diversity through the events. This helps me understand how I can help bringing a more inclusive environment for all people.

It’s also nice to meet people from other departments and faculties who have a different view on things, for example from the social science side of earth sciences.

Somebody recently said to me when I raised an issue regarding gender: ‘maybe you would be happier if you do not focus on these issues too much’, which of course made me a bit sad because dismisses your concerns, and it also suggests that your happiness should come from ignoring these issues rather than addressing them. And I think that’s a response a lot of people have and it can make you can feel insecure, reluctant about speaking up for these things. Because you don’t want to make it your identity too much, or you don’t want to victimize yourself. But through YWOG and having people around you that also are driven to address these inequalities, then I think that you are more likely to keep standing up and addressing these issues. It gets easier for you, and you reiterate that pointing out these things isn’t negative. It’s something that can help drive a meaningful change.

What do you see for yourself in your future career?

I want to stick to work that is a bit science related because I like to figure things out. I like to understand data and discover what we can learn from it. So that’s really closely related to science. How that will take place, I don’t know yet. Of course, I hope that in whatever organization I will be working in my future that I will foster any change where possible, and I hope everybody does that wherever they work.

Read more about Manon and their research here: https://www.uu.nl/medewerkers/MAMVerberne