The Grand Challengers Podcast Episode #27
A personal journey, from Africa to Switzerland – insights on education, nature-based solutions and women scientists
Guest: Darcy Molnar
April 9th, 2024
Episode Teaser
Introduction
“…You should do what you love and not what you think you should do… and in the end, things will work out and you will be happy…”
Darcy Molnar is a Senior Program Manager at the Leopold-Bachmann Foundation and the Masters in Advanced Studies in Water Resources Program Coordinator at ETH Zurich. Growing up in West Africa, Darcy forged a career around creating opportunities for global education around the critical challenges that our world is facing including water security, climate change, disaster risk reduction and how nature-based solutions can help overcome these. She is also founder of the 500 Women Scientists Zurich chapter, which seeks to provide more visibility to women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
On today’s show, Darcy and I revisit how she developed her passion for water, from the rivers of West Africa to boating along the Nile in Egypt. We reflect on what it takes to teach the complex topic of nature-based solutions, explore her activities in creating global north and south knowledge exchange networks, and how she has encouraged and created a path forward for better gender balance in STEM at the tertiary education level.
Biography
Dr. Darcy Molnar is Senior Programme Coordinator at the Leopold-Bachmann Foundation and the Masters in Advanced Studies in Sustainable Water Resources Program Coordinator at ETH Zurich. She grew up in Cameroon and after forming a passion with water and science, obtained a Bachelor degree in Physics from Middlebury College in Vermont USA in 1991, a Masters in Water Resources Planning and Management in 1994 and PhD in Hydraulic Engineering in 1997 at Colorado State University. She has over 14 years of experience in program coordination, teaching and education at the tertiary education level as well as 5 years of experience working with secondary schools in Ghana.
Specific topics that Darcy specializes in include nature-based solutions (for climate change and disaster risk reduction), sustainable water resources management (environment, social and economic) and capacity building (tertiary and secondary). She is actively engaged in enhancing opportunities for women in science and engineering and in promoting youth-led projects for sustainable development in the Global South. To date, many of her achievements include the Network for Water and Life (NEWAL) in West Africa Project, setting up the 500 Women Scientists Zurich Chapter, setting up the Masters of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Sustainable Water Resources at ETH Zurich and a number of other initiatives that she kick-started. Darcy was also on the steering board of of the Swiss Water Partnership (co-chair since 2021, until 2023) and an academic representative of Oeuvre St Justin Foundation (Fribourg).
Resources Related to the Episode
- Egypt:
- Felluca Sailing down the Nile – the boats that Darcy mentioned
- The Red Sea travel destination
- Egypt desert tours and more about Cairo from Lonely Planet
- History of the Nile River Basin – a nice overview from Penn State and National Geographic
- More about CH2M (formerly CH2M Hill) [Wikipedia]
- Yaoundé, the city and capital of Cameroon
- “You’re good at math, so you should go into engineering…” – as referenced on so many past episodes of the podcast including Episode 2, Episode 23 and Episode 24.
- More about the Sanaga River in Cameroon and its hydrology
- ETH Zurich’s Masters in Advanced Studies in Sustainable Water Resources Programme
- Teaching Nature-based solutions and Blue-Green Infrastructures:
- This is the course that Darcy and I organised (page 69) in case you’re interested in how we structured it
- The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has a lot of great resources on nature-based solutions, check out their official website
- The UN resolution defining Nature-based solutions [Link] [UNEA-5 page] – you can access the official UN resolution here
- The EU Nature Restoration Law [Link]
- What is integrated urban water management? [Global Water Partnership]
- The design project we used were based on real-world case studies in Switzerland. In the first year we ran the course, we actually used a project I worked on and have featured on the podcast in Episode 2 with Scott Lloyd. Check out this episode for more details on the Gaswerk Project that we then used in the Nature-based solutions and Blue Green Infrastructure course.
- We have referenced multiple areas at ETH Zurich: USYS (Environmental Science) and Integrated Building Systems and BAUG, the engineering faculty
- Work in Development and the Network for Water and Life (NEWAL)
- More about Science Action in Schools for Sustainable Development (SAS4SD) and some of their educational materials
- The network of weather stations across Africa (TAHMO)
- The Network for Water and Life (NEWAL) official website
- Darcy’s work in promoting women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics):
- 500 Women Scientists Zurich Chapter website
- Dr. Meike Akveld from the Department of Mathematics at ETH Zurich
- Kangaroo Goes Science (in German)
- Kangaroo Switzerland (in German)
- We reference Episode 9 with Ana Deletic and her view on the topic. Check out her episode for some fascinating discussions
- Darcy is now based at the Leopold-Bachmann Foundation, you can read more about their activities here
Episode Chapters
(Chapters are embedded in the episode for quick access, click this to expand and view all chapters and time stamps)
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:59 Guest Intro and her Egyptian Experience
- 7:29 From Physics to Engineering and Development
- 14:12 The Sanaga River
- 17:15 Getting to Switzerland
- 20:39 How to teach nature-based solutions?
- 35:07 Network for Water and Life (NEWAL)
- 44:42 500 Women Scientists
- 48:30 The Kangaroo Math Competition
- 1:00:30 Darcy’s New Adventure
- 1:01:51 Q&A Start
- 1:02:17 Key event, book person
- 1:04:33 If you had a magic wand?
- 1:05:23 Biggest challenge in career to date
- 1:08:27 Time Management
- 1:11:19 Advice for young scientists
- 1:12:02 Where can people find you?
- 1:12:20 Final Message
- 1:13:24 Outro
Connect with Darcy Molnar
Related Episodes
 | Episode #07 – Abishek Narayan There are no silver bullets for the toilet, city or life’s journey – just keep rowing (Related Topics: global south) |
 | Episode #09 – Ana Deletic From first flush and manholes to pendulums of stormwater, engineering and life (Related Topics: women in STEM, gender balance) |
 | Episode #11 – Anas Ghadouani A limnologist, filmmaker, water diplomat and passionate teacher walk into a kitchen… (Related Topics: education and mentorship, global challenges) |
 | Episode #15 – Juan Pablo Rodríguez Sánchez “Restrictions and constraints breed innovation” – sewers and nature-based solutions in Colombia (Related Topics: global south, nature-based solutions) |
Credits
- Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach, follow me on: X: @petermbach, Instagram: @petermbach87 or subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/
- Intro/Outro Song: ‘Starsky’ by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)