Studies Landslides, Chases Storms

Maiana Hanshaw, class of 2006 | BS in Earth and Ocean Sciences | Intern at the U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif. | Storm Researcher, Center for Severe Weather Research

"Duke’s environmental majors are great fun. The professors are friendly and inviting, and you get to visit cool places and learn about interesting things going on with the world."

As an intern at the U.S. Geological Survey in California, Maiana Hanshaw studies the rain-induced landslides that often occur after wildfires. As soon as a wildfire is out, she and her colleagues rush to the fire-ridden site and install instruments to measure the subsequent rainfall and its impact. After each rain, she returns to gather data to help pinpoint the conditions that produce landslides. Eventually, this data could help warn residents of impending danger.

Maiana gets a thrill out of working out in the field, where she sees everything firsthand. And how’s this for thrills: Since her summers at Duke, she has spent two months each year chasing major storms and tornados for the Center for Severe Weather Research, driving hundreds of miles around the central plains assisting a mobile Doppler radar truck get close enough to gather data on these severe weather events.

Maiana, who hails from Scotland, says her favorite part of her Duke education was the field trips, which took her to Hawaii, South Florida, the Outer Banks, Yellowstone and West Virginia. “It’s just so great to get out there. I took advantage of a lot of opportunities, but there were many more!”

After graduating from Duke, Maiana leveraged her earth and ocean sciences degree and her background in coastal studies to land an internship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, where she studied how hurricanes affect the inner intercontinental shelf. In her current job as a landslide researcher, she is learning many things on the job, but says that the analysis and computer skills she learned at Duke have given her a solid base to build upon.

The best part of majoring in the environment at Duke, says Maiana, "is that it’s great fun! The Nicholas School professors really enjoy teaching you, and they want you to enjoy learning. At Duke these majors are small, so you get to know almost everyone in your major, and to form relationships with the professors."