Catherine Walker

Catherine Walker (Catherine Colello Walker) is an American Earth and planetary scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she is on the scientific staff in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering. Her research spans fracture mechanics and dynamics in ice, cryosphere change, physical oceanography, and geomorphology on Earth and other planets and moons using a variety of methodologies including remote sensing Her scientific contributions include studies of ice shelf rifting and iceberg calving, oceanic drivers of Antarctic ice loss, and the formation of ice fracture and collapse features on Europa and Enceladus. In 2022, she was part of the team that observed the collapse of the Conger-Glenzer Ice Shelf, a first in East Antarctica. She was educated at Mount Holyoke College and the University of Michigan, followed by postdoctoral positions at Georgia Institute of Technology and Caltech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a senior fellowship at NASA Headquarters. Biography Catherine Walker was born in High Point, North Carolina with her twin sister, Cynthia, to parents Cheryl (née Colello), an early childhood educator, and George Walker II, a surgeon. The family moved to North Andover, Massachusetts in the late 1980s. Walker attended North Andover Public Schools, where she developed an interest in science and becoming an astronaut at an early age. Walker attended Mount Holyoke College, one of the Seven Sisters, and was advised by planetary geologist Darby Dyar. Walker graduated with her B. A. in Astronomy and a minor in Geology magna cum laude. During her undergraduate years, she conducted research at University of New Hampshire, working with space physicist Vania Jordanova analyzing magnetospheric substorms using the NASA/ESA Cluster spacecraft, and space physicist Antoinette Galvin on the pre- and post-launch analyses for the Plasma and SupraThremal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) instrument on NASA’s Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) mission that launched in 2006. In 2007, Walker joined the NASA Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), working on optical instrumentation to observe dust devils (dust cyclones) on Mars with optical physicist Brent Bos. She later joined the GSFC Planetary Magnetospheres Lab, conducting observing campaigns at Kitt Peak National Observatory on Jupiter’s moon Io. Walker began the Ph.D. program in Space Physics at Florida Institute of Technology before transferring to the Ph.D.