Karen standing on the rocky shore in Nagigi, Fiji, during her field research trip with the Drew Lab.
My Science
If I wasn’t a scientist, my writing would probably look very different! Here are the scientific projects I’ve worked on throughout my career. As with my books, I find it impossible to stick to just one topic, though my training is primarily in biology.
Science outreach is one of my main goals as an author-scientist, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields are dear to my heart. I often talk about these topics in school visits, and can be found doing community science fairs and drag comedy nights (?!) to share how cool science can be.
Mosquito brain sections floating in the boat of an ultra knife on the microtome, Lee Lab, 2021.
Marine Conservation Ecology
How big did giant clams get before people started fishing them heavily? Do people’s ideas of a “healthy” environment change from generation to the next? (Yes.) During my undergraduate career at Columbia University, I studied these questions in Nagigi, Fiji, with the Drew Lab. I also learned to scuba dive and sample fishes!
You can read more about our findings here.
Mosquito Carbon Dioxide Sensitization
Which cells and synapses in the female Aedes aegypti mosquito brain enable them to find human prey? How is information about carbon dioxide signals — the primary giveaway that humans are around — communicated among cells in the brain? My Ph.D. research at the Lee Lab at Harvard University aims to answer these questions with automated transmission electron microscopy. Thesis and paper coming soon!