Bio
KC joined ORNL in 2023 as a Liane B. Russell Fellow in the Ecosystem Processes Group and Environmental Sciences Division. KC is a forest ecologist broadly interested in understanding variation in forest structure and function across space and time. Her research is motivated by the importance of forests for understanding and predicting global cycles of carbon, water, and nutrients. KC's research combines remote sensing measurements (terrestrial, airborne, and spaceborne lidar; photogrammetry; imaging spectroscopy; synthetic aperture radar) and field-based observations (forest plots) to understand how organismal mechanisms affect landscape-scale processes.
In her Distinguished Staff Fellowship project, KC uses lidar and radar remote sensing tools to study how tree biodiversity influences disturbance recovery in Southeastern US forests. KC is also a member of the funded by the .
Professional Experience
2023 - present: Distinguished Staff Fellow, 91°µÍø
2022 - 2023: Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2020 - 2022: Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
2012 - 2014: Research Intern, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Education
2020, Ph.D.; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Brown University
2018, M.Sc.; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Brown University
2012, B.A.; Biology, Engineering (minor), and Mathematics (minor); Swarthmore College
Professional Service
Advisory Board,
Early Adopter,
Professional Affiliations
Ecological Society of America
American Geophysical Union
Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation