Alexandra Navrotsky: ‘I don’t think you attract people to science by big initiatives’
By 
Julia Robinson2026-01-16T09:45:00
The nanogeoscientist on the importance of people to good science, the recent turnaround on diversity, equity and inclusion and why she will never be a professional artist
I realised I was interested in science and engineering, probably by the time I was five or six years old. My grandfather was a great influence in that. He was a civil engineer … he would sometimes take me to work. I also had a great aunt who taught Russian at Columbia University, New York, so she sometimes would take me in so I would see what a university was like. It came pretty naturally that I was going to do something in science.