About

I am a Research Scientist at SETI and am a member of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL).  I lead the Polarization of Terrestrial Planets group, supported by a ROSES HabWorlds grant and part of the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS). I previously worked as an Associate Researcher at UC Riverside, and a postdoc at University of Washington. My research interests include biosignatures, habitability, the atmospheres of terrestrial and ice giant planets, brown dwarfs, and applications of polarimetry and detailed phase curve analysis.

Outside of astronomy, I am interested in machine learning, neuroscience, genetics/genomics, optical phenomena in the natural world, evolution and migration, and illumination and lighting models in computer graphics.

Outside of science, I am a painter of oils and watercolor; a PADI Advanced Scuba Diver; fan of dogs and other animals; an imbiber of fine coffee, stouts, whiskey and Rainier; a writer of trippy sci-fi; and a dancer of hula, ‘ori Tahiti, ballet, tango, and salsa (mostly hula though).

On Twitter I am @humanbott, follow me there for tweets about academia, paper announcements, and popular science links and news.

On Instagram I am @endlesslope, follow me there for posts about astrobiology, the natural world, and my travels (and the overlap of those things!).

Contact :                              kbott at seti.org

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