Nora Connor

I'm beginning my Ph.D. in the fall with SFI post-doc alumnus Aaron Clauset at the University of Colorado in Boulder. My background is in biology and my master's research looked at the ecology of speciation in bacteria (i.e., microbial evolution). At Colorado I'm focusing more on computer science and bioinformatics, with potential projects on malaria protein expression and microbial genome size evolution. Dr. Clauset's research has frequently focused on power laws and network analysis, so I'm hoping to examine my research more through those lenses.

I have spent the last 3 years working for the National Wildlife Federation in Boulder, where I advocated for wildlife conservation and environmental advocacy on public lands and tribal lands. Much of the public lands advocacy was related to oil and gas development, hydraulic fracturing, oil shale development, and renewable energy conflicts with wildlife habitat and migration corridors.

In addition to computer science (also known as math) and biology, I'm also interested in economics and game theory. I took some undergraduate courses in economics, specifically in microeconomic methods of risk analysis related to climate change and some dabbling in development economics and the history of economic thought.

My other interests include classical music (I play the piano), rugby (I played for 5 years), downhill skiing, kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing (and all other Boulder-type sports), and the overuse of parentheses.