Dr. Tosca is a climate scientist, a humanist, an activist. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an affiliate climate researcher at JPL (the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in southern California.

Her research explores the intersection of human activities and climate change and has brought her to Africa and back. Mika is an out and proud transgender scientist (she/her pronouns) and a vocal advocate for the queer and trans communities in Chicago and beyond.

Dr. Tosca earned her Ph.D. in Earth System Science at University of California, Irvine, in the Earth System Science Department, where she was advised by Dr. Jim Randerson and Dr. Charlie Zender. Her doctoral thesis was titled: "Fire and Smoke in the Earth System: Evaluating the impact of fire aerosols on regional and global climate"

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Shayle B Matsuda

Shayle Matsuda is a PhD student who studies coral reefs and climate change at the University of Hawaii. To hear more about his adventures as a trans scientist and other nerdy things follow him @wrong_whale.

Penny Whetton

Penelope Whetton (5 January 1958 – 11 September 2019) was a climatologist and an expert in regional climate change projections due to global warming and in the impacts of those changes. Her primary scientific focus was Australia.