Bio

Hello! I'm Katie Chamberlain, recent PhD graduate from the University in Arizona. My thesis work focused on the behavior of galaxy pairs in large volume cosmological simulations, and more generally involved data science on large simulated data sets and software development in Python. I am passionate about the “open source” part of open source software, and believe that community developed and maintained software is the foundation upon which modern science (and much of modern tech) is enabled.

I often think of myself as a creative problem solver before I think of myself as an astronomer. I have a wide range of interests in different disciplines, ranging from astronomy to linguistics to architecture. I am extremely into qualitative connections in very complex systems, and finding ways that knowledge from one field transfers to another with wild success.

I am particularly interested in the overlap of art and science -- not necessarily space art, not physics-accurate artistic creations, but the place where artistic and scientific practice overlap and what can be learned there. For example, what are the processes by which astronomers begin to "warm up" to begin their work, how can artists internalize and embody complex science, and what techniques have artists already established that may help them come to understand science in an alternative way. There is something nearly tangible especially in the connection between astronomy, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the artistic process. I am very excited to continue delving into this topic with the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence.