Profile
Katherine Shirley
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About Me:
I am a geologist, which means I studied rocks in school, and now I study rocks in space! I enjoy swimming and hiking in my spare time.
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My pronouns are:
She/her
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My Work:
I am a Planetary Scientist at University of Oxford working in the laboratory and with satellites to study rocks on the moon, asteroids, and comets.
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My Typical Day:
I usually get to work around 9am and work in the lab until lunch time. I spend the afternoons looking at the data and meeting online with colleagues from around the world. This means I sometimes have meetings at 10pm!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would like to use the prize money to buy a camera to attach to our outreach telescope, so that we can take amazing photos of the night sky to share with everyone or even do live streams!
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Education:
Northern High School, Maryland, USA
BA: Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA
- My degree is in Earth and Planetary Science
- I studied geology and worked in the image analysis lab helping catalog new images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
- I studied field geology in New Zealand as part of my undergraduate degree
- We looked at and mapped different types of rocks across the country, then spent a semester at the university
PhD: Stony Brook University, New York, USA
- My PhD is in Geosciences, but I studied how conditions on the surface of the Moon affect how we interpret satellite data
Meteor Crater Field School
- I learned about craters in one of the same places they train astronauts!
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Work History:
Image Analysis Lab Technician, Teaching Assistant, Graduate Researcher, Postdoctoral Researcher
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Current Job:
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
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Employer:
University of Oxford
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
mechanic
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not often
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Park Ranger
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