Claire Parkinson is a climate scientist Emeritus at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Her B.A. degree is from Wellesley College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees are from Ohio State University. Her research emphasis since the late 1970s has been on polar sea ice and climate change. She is also keenly interested in the history of science and in issues of social and environmental justice. Parkinson developed one of the earliest computer models of sea ice and has done field work in both the Arctic and Antarctic. She has written books on the history of science, satellite observations, and climate change.
Oral History Highlights
Was there anything memorable about your school time that we haven't talked about?
Well, yes, ... I was certainly very much moved by the Civil Rights Movement and very, very much in favor of it. When we were living on Long Island, once in a while we would go into New York City and I would see signs in front of a water fountain saying, "For whites only." And this was just horrifying to me. Even as a little kid, I would not drink out of that water fountain if it said, “for whites only”. I would say, "I'm going to wait till I get home. I'm not drinking out of that water fountain if other people aren't allowed to." So the Civil Rights Movement was really meaningful to me, hugely meaningful to me.