ESSIC’s Lau makes comic book character debut

By Maeve Dunigan

Former NASA and current UMD ESSIC climate scientist William “Bill” Lau recently made his cartoon debut, as a featured character in the "manga style" Japanese comic book series, “Learning Earth Science with Mirubo.”

The series follows grade schooler Mol and her robotic dog Mirubo, as they explore earth science. In this installment on monsoons, Mol and Mirubo follow Lau as he explains the origins of the word, how the seasonal phenomena develops and which regions of the earth are effected. 

This comic is the second installment in the collaborative series developed by UMD ESSIC, the NASA / GSFC Earth Sciences Division and Japanese science outreach artist Hayanoa.  The series strives to inform and educate children about earth science systems through factual information provided by real-life NASA-earth scientists.