Where are they now: Katie Kowal

After completing the REU at TUNL, Katie graduated from Lewis & Clark College as a double major in Physics and Political Science. She then worked as a Science Policy Fellow at the Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington, DC where she did research in support of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Some of her favorite research topics included examining launch approval guidelines for rockets with nuclear payloads and analyzing the risks of space weather events to critical infrastructure such as the electric power grid.

Katie is now a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and is completing her PhD in Geography and the Environment. She is passionate about mitigating the ill effects of anthropogenic climate change and her research focuses on evaluating drought forecasts across the Central American Dry Corridor.