Kristen Paris, M.S. Geology: Arizona State University

Kristen is a research analyst on the Mission Operations Team for LROC. She has always been fascinated with science of every nature and thoroughly enjoys learning. When she was young, her Saturday and Sunday mornings were spent clung to the TV watching "Beakman's World" and "Bill Nye the Science Guy."

Kristen started out her college career at the University at Buffalo studying Biology, with a focus on genetics and getting to do some fieldwork studying copepods near Nome, Alaska. Three years into the Biology program, Kristen took a course from the Geology department about dinosaurs. She found the class so interesting that she eventually took the introductory courses and applied to the Geology program.

After a semester or two of Geology, Kristen heard that there was a Planetary Geology course being offered and jumped at the opportunity. Fascinated with all of it but not having much direction, she approached the professor and inquired about doing a Senior Thesis project. The professor accepted Kristen into her research group and a whole new world awaited! This particular world led to a couple of summer internships (one at NASA Ames, and another at Johnson Space Center) and a new direction in life.

Kristen graduated with a B.S. in Biology and another B.S. with Honors in Geology and headed to a much more Kristen-friendly climate in Arizona. During her Master's work, she managed to finagle her way into the LROC group, volunteering there for a week or two (before being buried by coursework). During her final semester, she joined the LROC group as a student worker and was soon hired into the Operations Team. As an Operations Team member, she is working on the processing of the Apollo Metric images in addition to all sorts of fun and exciting LROC duties!

When Kristen isn't working, she is relaxing outside at home watching the planes from PHX come and go, somewhere outside just to be outside, watching TV, drawing, reading, or planning some sort of road trip.

Science rules!