22 JANUARY 2023 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Early-Career Scientist Helps Locate Priority Geothermal Drilling Locations Adapted from Information by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory A love of science led Nicole Taverna to focus on physics and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses as a teenager in Pennsylvania, but the lure of the West ultimately guided her path to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Taverna is a member of the Data Analytics, Tools, and Applications Group within the NREL Strategic Energy Analysis Center. Along with other responsibilities, she helps locate priority geothermal drilling locations by combining and analyzing relevant data. For the past five years, she has curated the Geothermal Data Repository, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. She has also expanded her expertise to include machine learning, interactive data visualization, and data pipeline development, as well as statistical methods and analyses, primarily focused on geothermal energy. “I kind of specialize in solving problems,” said Taverna. Curiosity for science has guided her career. She landed an internship out of high school doing geophysical surveys with an environmental consulting firm. While studying geophysics and computer science at the Colorado School of Mines, she also held an internship at NREL. “I wanted to study energy, and . . . I ended up in geothermal. I got to go out in the field and do geophysical surveys, and I think that helped set it more in stone for me. That passion for fieldwork was what drove me here, but my desire to use data analytics and data science to create a better future has kept me moving in a similar direction.” As a young female data scientist working in geothermal energy, Taverna finds herself in a unique situation. She views the industry with fresh eyes and feels a duty to analyze traditional industry norms for ways new scientific methods may advance the field. “I just want to come in with a new and open creative mind and change the way we think about these kinds of things. We’ve been doing it the same way for so long. Are there better ways to do things knowing what we know now? More broadly than just geoscience, I want to apply that way of thinking anywhere I can. I want to change the norm in some ways to improve our scientific abilities,” she explained. Taverna is interested in data-centric machine learning, which is focused on improving the quality of data rather than improving the model parameters. She also wants to continue creating better access to well-managed and secure data for the geothermal industry. While the future is pointing toward machine learning and artificial intelligence, she said it is important to focus on doing it right. “I don’t think we should be rushing to replace everything with machine learning. We need to be careful about it. How can we improve what we're doing, as opposed to replace? Those are the things I’m really passionate about right now, that are really driving my research today.” Taverna said she found a new sense of confidence while working on the recent DEEPEN project. She traveled to Iceland for a workshop on geothermal energy, meeting up with many European experts and counterparts. DEEPEN aims to provide better understanding of the roots of magmatic geothermal systems. The project is a multinational collaboration among several universities, institutes, and energy companies. Early in her career, she found the industry could be rather intimidating to young professionals. Taverna is now poised to help mentor young students and show them paths toward careers in renewable energy because she can relate. She has found a voice, learning “you don’t always need to obey the hierarchy. New ideas are what lead to scientific advancement. Your opinion is worth sharing, even if you don't think so in the moment.” Taverna received the 2022 Geothermal Rising Young Professional Award (Technical). 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