An inspiration for women geology students
Written by Joop Varekamp, who met Ellen Thomas as a first year student; they have been married now for almost 50 years. E&ES emeritus professor, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT,
jvarekamp@wesleyan.edu

​Ellen Thomas grew up in a small town in the eastern Netherlands, where the expectation was that she would become a housewife. Instead, Ellen went to Utrecht University and studied Geology, at that time one of the more strongly male dominated areas of science. Our class of geology students started in 1968 with 24 students, of which two were women. The professors made it very clear that women were not welcome in the profession.... (read more)