You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Crystal Vasquez didn't plan to study atmospheric chemistry.

My whole career is really an accident, honestly.

I came into college as pre-med and then I was like,

don't really like bio, I'll just stick with chemistry

because I like my professor.

Power of a good professor, am I right?

And when Crystal needed credits over the summer,

I was like, I'll take this environmental science class

because it seems easy and I get financial aid by taking it.

And I really liked it so that was my minor.

Which led to an awesome internship experience

in atmospheric science, where I got to fly on a plane

and sample air while flying, and then I basically

was sold from there.

And in 2015, Crystal dove into an atmospheric chemistry

PhD program at the California Institute of Technology.

Her research focus, how air quality is impacted

when urban pollution mixes with natural emissions from trees.

She describes her first couple of years as pretty high stress

with back-to-back field studies.

And in 2018, something unexpected happened

...