Liza Kimberly

Liza Kimberly lives in Bellingham, Washington. She’s currently a graduate student at Western Washington University, researching the potential for using aerial photography and computer software (Structure-from-Motion) to quantify glacier mass balance on Mount Baker. Liza is passionate about mountains, the interconnectedness of the natural world, conservation, place-based learning, and seizing the things that give her wings! She thinks it is important to find ways to connect with both people and with places (and to connect people WITH places, too).

Her interest in snow science grew from her love for backcountry skiing and interest in understanding the world through a scientific lens. Becoming literate in the puzzles of a snowpack in order to ski through fluffy powder has been a great and enriching intersection of her passions.

What is citizen science? Why join CSO?

To Liza, citizen science means encouraging everyone to be a scientist. She joined CSO because the feels that understanding a snowpack is “such a cool way to understand local weather as well as global climate … and this project is an awesome way to merge recreation and science.” She’s excited to contribute her own data and also to encourage people to create a little time and space (in the midst of powder glee) to be curious and make observations.

As a member of CSO, you can easily contribute to a growing body of scientific knowledge, which has the potential to enhance understanding of our changing snowpacks (and the downstream implications of these changes).