From planet Earth to Mars, Old Dominion University Ocean & Earth Sciences (OES) alumna Shannon Cofield, Ph.D., has been a part of some astronomical opportunities. Her strong military background coupled with a joy for S.T.E.M. helped her shatter the glass ceiling as a women in science. Cofield’s journey started off uncertain in the beginning, but from tragedy to triumph, Cofield has used her knowledge combined with dedication to take each hurdle she’s crossed as par for the course. As she has embarked on her career as a geological oceanographer, she credits her triple crown degrees from ODU and her time served in the military as intricate to her success.
Seizing opportunities seems second-nature for Cofield. Currently as a geological oceanographer in the U.S. Department of the Interior, Cofield works in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “Our group’s primary responsibility is in charge of managing all of the marine minerals that are in all federal waters, which just got expanded to include Puerto Rico and the Pacific Islands and more of Alaska,” said Cofield. Her team is broken up into two divisions. The first part of her work focuses on sand and gravel renourishment at Atlantic beaches for sea level rise and infrastructure protection. The second part of her duties are on deep sea or critical minerals which has become a “hot button issue because of the deep-sea mining concerns.” Cofield said, “We’re really encouraged to develop our own research, develop our own studies and execute those studies.” Her most recent responsibilities seem towering, but for her she has prepared for seismic moments like this over the years.
Prior to her current position, Cofield was part of a team of scientists who mapped out Gale Crater for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” rover, and Jezero Crater, where the NASA Mars 2020 Rover, “Perseverance” would land in 2021. While at ODU, pursuing her doctorate degree, she was awarded the 2020 Virginia Space Grant fellowship, and she did an internship where she was paired with NASA researcher Dr. Katie Stack Morgan at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/California Institute Technology. Because the country was under strict lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cofield was able to do work virtually with the team on the west coast. “At the time, they didn’t have a landing site, but they had three candidate landing sites,” said Cofield.
She helped colleagues at JPL do some big scale mapping. “We went to a workshop and all the three groups presented their data, which was a really cool experience, and NASA headquarters selected our site,” said Cofield. After nearly two and a half years of working on precise mapping using the geospatial software Geographic Information System (ArcGIS), Cofield was thrilled to be part of history. When most of the world watched the live feed on television or on the internet of the Mars Rover “Perseverance” landing, Cofield had a different viewpoint. “Seeing something that I've looked at so intimately on satellite imagery for so many months and years finally coming to view in real life and seeing the landing was so surreal for me,” said Cofield.
The mission goals of the Mars Rovers expanded from Curiosity’s search for water to Perseverance’s search for evidence of past life on the red planet. “They wanted to seek signs of past life, so we needed to find an area,” said Cofield. “And this is where my whole education at ODU helped play into decision making because my group asked, ‘Where on earth would you find signs of past life?’” Her team focused on finding evidence of bacteria and more specifically marine bacteria and water bacteria. “There's a couple of unique spots that you might still find that are preserved on another planet or even here on earth and one of them is the Mississippi River,” said Cofield. “At the mouth of the Mississippi River, where the water flow slows down, sediments build up into a fan-shaped feature called a delta. Everything flowing down the river has a chance to get incorporated into the delta- including bacteria, microorganisms, and other organic matter. “A lot of it gets concentrated in those sediments in that delta and builds up over time,” said Cofield. “Low and behold, one of the sites on Mars was a crater where literally, you could look at it and be like, ‘oh, what is that big fan feature?’ It was an old delta.” Seeing the delta on Mars proved to Cofield and her team that there was once water flowing at some point. “This was a lake, there's a delta and the chances of finding some sort of evidence of ancient bacteria or organic matter was our best bet,” said Cofield. Being able to collaborate on the NASA project while staying laser-focused on completing her doctoral degree at ODU was everything Cofield loved about science. Furthermore, looking back she knows how important a S.T.E.M. education is to unlocking mysteries on this planet and beyond because having a firm foundation is key.
Cofield was raised in Wisconsin and originally began her undergraduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “I always liked S.T.E.M., but I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I went straight from high school to college,” said Cofield. She was sitting in her class in the Midwest when shock rippled through the country. America was under terrorists’ attacks on September 11, 2001. Soon she made the most impactful decision of her life without hesitation. “When 9-11 happened, like most people, I dropped everything and I enlisted in the Navy,” said Cofield. “I served four years in the Navy in a unique command, and I actually never went on a ship.”
During her time-of-service Cofield was chosen to be a part of the Presidential Honor Guard in Washington, D.C. “I performed ceremonies at the White House and rendered funeral honor in Arlington National Cemetery,” said Cofield. She and those chosen to be part of this high-level position were required to meet a series of criteria, such as having a spotless record, everyone had to be more than six-feet tall and be the same height. “And you had to be able to get a clearance to essentially stand next to the President with a rifle,” said Cofield. The bulk of her time in the Presidential Honor Guard was spent honoring military service members who had fallen. “All in all, I did 2,500 funerals in four years,” said Cofield.
After her Navy enlistment, she began another journey at ODU in the fall of 2008 as an undergraduate in the department of Ocean & Earth Sciences (OES). After earning her Bachelor of Science in 2012, she stayed at ODU and went right into her master’s degree which she completed in 2015. “I opted to take the master’s comprehensive exam, which allowed me to roll all my research that I’d already done into ODU’s Ph.D. program,” said Cofield.
Cofield did research on paleo marine geology under the guidance of her doctoral was advisor, Professor Emeritus Dr. Dennis Darby. Her research looked at how the Arctic was affected by ice during the last three major ice ages. Sea ice and glacial ice carry sediment as they drift around the Arctic Ocean, then deposit them in the North Atlantic. We analyzed a deep-sea marine sediment core from the North Atlantic and matched the unique elemental composition of iron-oxide sand grains to the original land locations around the Arctic. . “Using deep sea sediment cores, we can go back in the past and look at past glacial periods and we see how and when ice was moving,” said Cofield. “We use it as a proxy for ice movement and looking at these rapid climate changes that are in the past record could give us some insight as to what's going on today.”
Climate change and geology remain at the core of Cofield’s career which started ODU and she was able to get out on the water to pursue research. Cofield did research on ODU’s research vessel (RV) Fay Slover. “I went on the R/V research vessel Atlantis, which it's a Woods Hole ship, which has the Alvin on it, which is a deep-sea submersible,” said Cofield. She’s done a two-month cruise off the coast of Chili specifically in the eastern Equatorial Pacific. Also, she’s done work on the R/V Rob Brown, a NOAA vessel, off the coast of Mexico.
She credits ODU with giving her a firm foundation in collaboration and exploration to helping move her career path forward. “Something I really like about the oceanography department at ODU is that you have got to be interdisciplinary,” said Cofield. “So that teamwork aspect of the military and everything I’ve been a part of with so many options has been a theme in my life.”
Being a woman in S.T.E.M. is rewarding to Cofield. “I will say at ODU, I was very lucky because there was basically a 50/50 representation of men and female scientists and everyone truly cared about the success of their students,” said Cofield. She shares this advice to women who are thinking of a career in S.T.E.M.: “Don't let being a woman be a barrier. Don't let it stop you. Just do your job well and be proud.” From serving her country in a time of need to helping the country keep natural resources sustainable for generations to come, Cofield is a Monarch who is humble and grateful for how ODU has been impactful on her journey.