In 2004, Kat Potter was a wunderkind undergraduate honors student at The College of William and Mary working with The Center for Conservation Biology, VIMS, and the Chemistry Department investigating levels of brominated fire retardants in eggs of peregrine falcons. Kat was a brilliant and passionate student with a clear focus on the future of the environment. Following her graduation with highest honors from William and Mary, Kat enrolled in the Graduate Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate at MIT. There she designed, constructed, and utilized an instrument to measure nitrous oxide composition in the atmosphere allowing for the measurement of greenhouse gas sources and budgets and completed her PhD in 2011.
Kat Potter’s undergraduate honors thesis at William and Mary focused on spatial patterns in fire retardant levels in peregrine falcon eggs. Photo by Bryan Watts.
For the past 9 months, Kat has been the lead scientist working to establish the first atmospheric/climate observatory in Africa. The site of the observatory is atop Mount Karisimbi in Rwanda. If successful, the observatory will become part of the Advanced Atmospheric Gases Experiment, a worldwide network of stations funded by NASA and NOAA. In addition to establishing the observatory, Kat is training future Rwandan scientists, technicians, and academics to collaborate in the world’s efforts to monitor climate change.
Potter has an ongoing blog about her activities in Rwanda and was recently featured in an alumni article by MIT.
Written by
Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247
June 12, 2013
A bald eagle nest just off the Poropotank River in Virginia in 2003. A nest with two equal young and ample food was a normal scene during this time period. This reflects a golden period during the late 1990s and early 2000s when males had more leisure time to hunt and provide for broods. Photo by Catherine Markham.
Breeding female on the Eltham Bridge. This female was hatched on Elkins Marsh along the seaside of the Delmarva in 2010 and has held the territory on the Eltham Bridge since 2013 with three successive males. She has been very aggressive and protective of the nest site and has held the territory together. She was found with a wing injury from a collision in December and could not be rehabilitated. She is one of a number of falcons that have been documented to go down in 2022. Photo by Bryan Watts.
1 Comment
We are fortunate to have students like Kat Potter, she is our future. Good work Kat!