Spark

Self-described “island prof” Vashan Wright ’12 hails from Jamaica. As all kids do, he dreamed of what he would be when he grew up—a teacher, a scientist, or maybe an accountant. By high school, he knew he wanted to study geology and made the decision to pursue his degrees internationally.

He completed the American requirements for high school in Jamaica, graduated early, and headed to Calvin, choosing the university in part because his high school mentor spoke highly of it. But moving from Jamaica to Michigan came with challenges, from long winters to navigating a new culture.

Today, Wright—who holds a PhD in geophysics from Southern Methodist University—studies tectonics, paleoclimate, paleoseismicity, and earthquake-triggered hazards such as landslides, submarine slides, and tsunamis. He is also an assistant professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and a guest investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Wright’s professional biography boasts a lengthy and diverse range of research topics, which include studying earthquake and flooding hazards in the Caribbean, researching infrasound signals from North Korean underground nuclear explosions in 2016, and searching for liquid water and ice in Mars’ subsurface. He primarily conducts his research using lab experiments, field observations, and theoretical modeling with computers.

Wright hopes what he learns about both Earth and Mars will shape the future of how humans care for and adapt to an ever-changing world. “Discovering what happened in the past and developing a theory for what we see and observe in nature helps scientists make predictions about what may happen in the future,” explains Wright, using a few examples to illustrate his point. “Mars is a planet that has a water cycle not impacted by human activity and studying it helps us better understand water cycles in general. Or identifying faults and their sizes, as well as knowing what size earthquakes the faults created in the past, helps engineers develop probabilistic ground shaking maps or update building codes.”

Thinking about the impact of his life’s work has roots in Wright’s Calvin experience. Though he encountered challenges, such as experiencing first-hand the way racism impacts People of Color, he also lauds his undergraduate experience in other ways.

“I like the approach Calvin had to developing students’ minds. Some of the theological approaches to thinking about goodness, ethics, and philosophical approaches to life were particularly enlightening, regardless of what you believe. And I think that’s the thing I value most about my Calvin education.”

Wright also appreciated not having to “choose between religion and science.” Instead, he describes a more nuanced process of being challenged by what he learned.

“The scientific endeavor and the trust we have in the observations make me think about a reckoning and wrestling that needs to happen with the ideas of faith and science. While I was at Calvin, there were things I didn’t know before that had to be wrestled with and put into context. A Calvin professor was the first to tell me about the multiverse, for example. We learned about evolution in geology and biology classes. That’s where there is need for wrestling with the ideas and placing them within a consistent framework.”

Wright’s commitment to values such as fairness, goodness, and truth also informs his advocacy for equity, justice, and belonging in the sciences. He is the founder of Unlearning Racism in Geoscience, or URGE, an initiative that partners with geoscientists in universities, federal agencies, and industry to draft new anti-racist policies that institutions can adopt. The work is not easy, but Wright is unflinching in his commitment to challenge the status quo to improve equity in his professional field and beyond.