Peters: (continued...)

However, Katherine didn’t take a direct path to her environmental work. While an undergraduate studying physics at the University of Maryland, Katherine became interested in Quantum Mechanics, something she continued to pursue while working toward a Master's degree in Physics and Philosophy at Columbia University. Later, at the University of California at Irvine—where she obtained her second Master's in Logic and the Philosophy of Science—Katherine studied the philosophy of general relativity, working with faculty advisor David Malament, who is a leader in this field. Since then, Katherine has completed most of the research for a book she hopes will make quantum mechanics more comprehensible to lay people—to convey the craziness of it without delving too deeply into its complexities.

But Katherine's research interests are not limited to the somewhat obscure realm of Quantum Mechanics. Katherine's interest in working at CEES stems also from a desire to affect a wide range of people. “I've always been excited about how policy makes such a big difference in people's everyday lives,” she says.

Kevin Doran, Senior Research Fellow at CEES, remembers that Katherine began working at CEES (when it was still EESI) as a volunteer, putting in 20-hour weeks on complex research. The high quality of her work soon led CEES to offer her a position as a full-time researcher. “She has, I think, the enviable and brilliant ability to digest material and concepts she's never seen before and to master them very quickly,” Doran says.

Doran’s impressions of Katherine are mirrored by those of CEES Director Dr. Lakshman Guruswamy. “Soon after she arrived,” Guruswamy recalls, “we recognized Katherine’s leadership potential and made her the Project Leader for our International Project on Energy Commitments and Compliance (IPECC). She has successfully managed a team of researchers and kept the energy of IPECC going. She is charming, shows great maturity, and interacts well with her co-workers. Despite her own daunting amount of work, she always volunteers to help when help is needed, such as when we host special events or need an article for the newsletter.” (For example, please see Katherine’s Student Comment and her Interview With Tom Plant in this issue!)

In addition to her work on IPECC, Katherine is involved in several other projects at CEES. One of her favorite tasks was writing a paper for the Presidential Climate Action Plan (PCAP), an initiative to provide the next U.S. President with a package of near, middle, and long-term policy options on climate change that he or she can implement once in office. Katherine's paper dealt with one of the President's most significant channels of power—executive orders—and the philosophical approaches three different presidents brought to their uses of these orders. Additionally, Katherine is doing research with Dr. Guruswamy on ways to bring renewable energy technology to people living on less than a dollar a day. Much of this research involves geographically specific applications of technology, one example being a study of the viability of hybrid wind/photovoltaic systems in western, rural China.

One of the best aspects of CEES, Katherine says, is the way that it has been able to tap into the Colorado legislature and increasingly, the international community. She thinks this is partly a result of the Center's emphasis on an unbiased research perspective concentrated on providing policy makers with the tools to implement more effective initiatives. And the Center has also given Katherine a new perspective on what she might want to do with the rest of her life. She has applied to law school for next fall and feels that working at CEES has already given her “a year's worth of prep.” In particular, she has gotten a better idea of how law interfaces with science and policy, as well as plenty of opportunities to do legal research.

Given her accomplishments to date, whichever law school Katherine chooses will be fortunate indeed to have her as a student.