Mike O'Connor, 34th GSA-USGS Congressional Science Fellow.
GSA and the U.S. Geological Survey are pleased to announce Mike O'Connor will serve as
the 2019–2020 GSA-USGS Congressional Science Fellow.
O'Connor is a hydrologist with an extensive background in water resources and cold regions. While at the
University of Texas working with Bayani Cardenas, Mike used fieldwork and numerical models to substantially improve
our understanding of how fast and how deep climate change-induced permafrost thaw will occur in Alaska. The
fieldwork was conducted out of Toolik Field Station on the Alaskan North Slope, and was partially supported by GSA
Grant funds.
Much of Mike's Ph.D. was spent outside of his department and discipline, which helped him learn how to communicate
complex ideas to people outside his discipline. Mike served as a Graduate Research Fellow within Oak Ridge National
Laboratory's Climate Change Science Institute, and worked closely with a team of environmental system modelers. Mike
also served as an intern for both the Texas Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water, and Rural Affairs (Spring 2015),
as well as in the US House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources (Summer 2017), where he helped communicate
policy-relevant science to lawmakers and their staff. These will hopefully prove useful during his time on the Hill
this year.