Catalina Rubiano
She/Her
I am a lesbian and I am a marine geologist.//
I am a graduate student at USF’s College of Marine Science studying sea level change by looking at paleoshorelines that are preserved on the West Florida Shelf. I study these features using multibeam bathymetry and subsurface seismic profiles. My focus is on understanding the geomorphology of these features to understand how they evolved in response to the sea level rise that occurred following the Last Glacial Maximum – insight that can inform us about how modern coasts will respond to current sea level rise.
Being a gay woman and daughter of a Latin American father, much of my identity has been shaped by the constant struggle to break cultural expectations of what a woman should be. Aside from pursuing my passions in science, I had a lengthy soccer career playing both in college at Louisiana State University and professionally in Colombia. The intersections of my identity have a huge influence on who I am as a scientist. My goal is to build a career that allows me to share my passions, both as a scientist and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, with the rest of the world in a way that resonates and brings us all closer together.