New opportunities for carbon reduction
In 2000, Lin chose to leave her high-paying job in Singapore and return to Taiwan in order to better care for her young child. Having to restart her career from scratch, she was perplexed and anxious, and spent a month thinking about what to do next. She says resolutely: “For me, science is a noble pursuit through which one can contribute to humankind. I wanted to work on something new, so in the end I decided to do multidisciplinary research to solve new problems.”
Besides studying supertyphoons, Lin has also researched the earth’s carbon cycle and explored the phenomenon of algal blooms in “ocean deserts”—areas of sea with low levels of nutrients and ocean chlorophyll. Marine microalgae, also known as phytoplankton (photosynthetic microorganisms that float in the sunlit upper layer of the ocean) can sequester carbon, thus reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At a time when scientists around the world are seeking to reduce carbon emissions, perhaps these algae can make a contribution to carbon reduction.
By analyzing NASA sea color data, Lin discovered that after a typhoon passes across an area of ocean there are dramatic increases in chlorophyll there. Typhoons churn up the sea, bringing nutrient-rich water from deeper levels to the surface, and this causes explosive growth in algae. When these algae perform photosynthesis, they can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
When it comes to volcanic eruptions, most researchers focus on aspects such as geology or air pollution. But Lin followed a different path. While analyzing satellite data she noticed that after the eruption of a volcano near Guam, there was an increase in algal activity in the surrounding ocean. Lin expanded her work into a fourth field—volcanology—and spent a few years reading large numbers of papers about volcanism. When she found out that there was a volcanologist in the USA who had collected samples in this area of the world, she excitedly waited until 3 a.m. Taiwan time to contact this scientist at the University of New Mexico. After hearing Lin out, he sent samples of volcanic ash to Taiwan to be analyzed at the Academia Sinica. Through this international collaboration Lin and her colleagues were able to publish the first paper to suggest that volcanic ash can stimulate significant biogeochemical and carbon responses in the low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions of the western North Pacific.
Training more women scientists
Lin’s inexhaustible energy has inspired others. For example, a doctoral candidate working in Lin’s lab named Huang Hsiao Ching had in fact felt little interest in her classes as a freshman in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at NTU, and had even thought of changing her major. But in her junior year she took Lin’s class on remote sensing and discovered what a broad field it is. By applying one’s judgment and intuition to data and graphs, one can make novel findings, and this gave Huang the scope to develop her talents.
Huang recalls that when she first joined Lin’s lab 17 years ago, Lin’s son was only two years old, and sometimes Lin had so much on her plate that she had to bring him with her to work. Huang has watched as Lin has juggled her various roles and found that even though Lin has encountered difficulties in life, she has always been able to quickly adjust and look at obstacles positively while maintaining her passion for science. Huang saw Lin as a role model as a woman scientist and decided to follow in her footsteps and pursue research in earth sciences.
Lin states that there should be no gender distinctions in science, and there are many outstanding women scientists in the world. However, being a mother at the same time can be exhausting. “We are happy to take on the duties of motherhood, but more young women would be willing to become scientists if the research environment were friendlier.” Lin says that many women scientists suffer from burnout and give up their research because their children require so much care in their preschool years, so it would be better if there were options for flexible part-time work or working from home.
With her deep understanding of the struggles faced by scientists who are mothers, Lin thoughtfully avoids having researchers work when they must pick up or drop off their children at school or activities. She also prepares toys and stickers for kids to play with when their scientist moms need to bring them in to work. She believes that creating a family-friendly environment that allows scientist mothers to make satisfactory childcare arrangements enables them to concentrate even better on their work.
Last year Lin began offering a course at NTU called “Female Scientists: Research, Life, Struggle, Reflection, and Outlook.” She hopes to enable all students, male and female, to understand the difficulties faced by female scientists who also have families to take care of and thereby improve the research environment in the future.
Though scientist moms can face many obstacles, especially when children are young, Lin is much inspired by a verse from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible: “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.” These are the words she uses to encourage young women scientists not to give up in the face of stress and challenges, but to keep the fire of hope alive in their hearts as they wait for the light of a new dawn.