Inspiring professor rocked geology grad’s world

Sometimes, all it takes is one inspiring lecturer. When Professor Kathy Campbell spoke about studying ancient rocks on Earth for clues to life on other planets, first-year geology student Michaela Dobson knew: “That’s me.”

Taking the road more cosmic led Michaela to ancient rocks and swarming flies in outback Australia, NASA’s search for life on Mars, and research placements in France and Vienna. She was this week awarded a PhD in Geology by Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

Posing for graduation photos, Michaela and Kathy held some rather unconventional graduation props… not fluffy toys or flowers, but 2.5 billion-year-old and 3.5 billion-year-old rocks.  

“What drew me to science were the big questions,” says Michaela. “The questions that are so easy to ask and so incredibly hard to answer. Like, what is the origin of life on Earth? And is there life out there in the cosmos?”

She lives in Brisbane working in science communication and education, two of her passions. On TikTok, she shares science as Doctor MJ, also known as theastrobiogeologist.

For her PhD, Michaela investigated some of the earliest evidence of life Earth in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks from Western Australia. Life in extreme environments – past and present – can guide the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
 

She felt amazed and privileged: “I’m cutting into a rock, and I’m the first person to see these traces of life from billions of years ago – imagine doing that.”

Undertaking a research internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Michaela found herself at the heart of world space exploration. “One day, I overheard people nearby discussing a new space mission idea. It was mind-boggling to realise that so many historic space missions had been imagined, designed and built in that very area.”

She’s an academic star trailing degrees, scholarships and awards, but she has faced major challenges such as a serious concussion in 2020 with long-lasting effects and Covid-19 lab closures and travel bans.  

“Sometimes when it got stressful, I liked to take a step back and think about the bigger picture,” she says. “I was contributing, in a small way, to fundamental questions about our very existence.”

Michaela is a strong advocate for diversity in science and women in STEM, particularly in the traditionally male-dominated fields of space science and geology. She believes her own ADHD, diagnosed late in her PhD, brings useful divergent thinking and creativity to her scientific work.

“A key strength of my scientific work is the ability to think in systems – connecting patterns and synthesising complex information,” she says. “So, in some ways, my neurodivergence turns out to be an asset not a limitation. And science needs diverse thinking.”  

Michaela’s thesis thanks family and friends, fellow students, collaborators, outback hosts and so many more, and she quotes a whakataukī.

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari kē he toa takitini: My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, it was not individual success but the success of a collective.

The whole remarkable journey goes back to an inspiring stage-one lecture.