Stay Curious: Erin Borgman

Duration:

4 minutes, 32 seconds

Video about NPS Ecologist, Erin Borgman's experience with science and choosing the right career path.

"I think that's what I like the best is understanding more about how things work, and what's living there, and how it interacts with all the other organisms in that system." Erin Borgman

Meet Erin Borgman

Erin is an NPS Ecologist and Field Coordinator with the Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Division. She uses specialized instruments to measure the various vital signs, such as pH level, dissolved oxygen, and temperature, of important streams and rivers like the Big Thompson River in Rocky Mountain National Park. Streams are a vital resource. They are crucial to anchoring the water cycle in parks, they are important in the process of recycling nutrients, and they provide habitat for plants and animals.

She didn't grow up knowing she wanted to do this kind of work, but once she found the field of ecology later in life, she knew it was the path for her. She says, "what Ecology is for me; it's the marriage of what I love about nature and what I love about science. It's large-scale science that you can see without a microscope in many cases."

Watch the video above to learn more about Erin's circuitous path to Ecology and what advice she can give to those of us who didn't know what we wanted to be when we grew up either. You can also learn more about the specialized instruments she uses in her work on her sciencedeskdigs, an Instagram series that highlights the stories and work of NRSS scientists.