Science Over Service: Going against the tide?

Dr. Gabriela Chavarria appointed as Vice President of research and collections at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. A holder of a PhD from Harvard University, formerly served as a senior adviser at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency’s National Forensic Lab. She took charge of Denver on January 08, 2018 as the curator and vice president of research and collections. With her decade-long career in Government services coming to an end, the Federal government has surely lost a gem.

The decision, however, was not at all abrupt. After the White House imposed numerous restrictions on the scientists and research fellows in the last year, Chavarria felt that the freedom of the scientific community was being curbed unnecessarily, accounting for qualitative loss in the field of research. She feels that in spite of having fewer chances of being politically vocal, hers was a wise decision in the sense that she would be serving the scientific world directly.

Most of her contemporaries have gone with the flow, that is, from an isolated scientific world to a more politically inclined service. In fact, one of her predecessors at Denver, Kirk Johnson, relocated eastward and went on to become the director of the National Museum of Natural History at Washington D.C. In this light, Chavarria can really be cited as an exception.

Dr.Gabriela Chavarria during a lecture In a recent interview, Chavarria expressed her views on the closing down of numerous natural museums in the world. She feels that decreasing interest of the common people has been the impetus. However, she finds the museum authorities and their non-interactive policies responsible for these. If the common mass is not associated with the research works and scientific progress, both directly and indirectly, no natural museum can survive.

Chavarria also opened up on her childhood and her Mexican origin referring to how the women in her life – her mother and grandmother- have pushed her towards success. Her selection of bumblebees as a topic for PhD seems to be a funny incident from her words. She emphasized on the increasing danger on bees due to use of pesticides in coal mines.

Her work front had been dynamic. From leading a group of researchers under the supervision of ace scientist E.O. Wilson to campaigning against illegal trafficking of hardwood in the tropical region, she has had an experience of a lifetime.

Her travelogue also seems to be lengthy as being in both science and service, she has been to every state of the country and furthermore to the southern tip of South America, Tierra Del Fuego. In fact, she has traveled to almost 30 different countries for the sake of her work.

She acknowledges the fact that local people and the vernacular cultures have helped her a lot in her field. She expects science to be more within the reach of the common people and hope that, at Denver, it would continue to maintain the unique tradition of interaction that the institute has upheld for years.