Morgan Underwood

Hi there! My name is Morgan, and I'm a senior graduate student at Rice University in Houston, Texas. My educational career started in my (very small) hometown of Harleton, Texas. After I graduated from high school, I started university at Texas A&M, pursuing an engineering degree. I changed my major twice before I finally found a home in the geoscience department. This is where I found my love for studying the Earth, its history, and how we apply our knowledge of our planet to the exploration of other planets. After graduating from Texas A&M with a geology degree, I was accepted into the PhD program at Rice. I am now pursuing my PhD in Earth, Environmental & Planetary Science, where my thesis research focuses on the search for life on other rocky and Earth-sized planets found within our galaxy. My work focuses on using analyses of these "Earth-like" planets' atmospheres to search for signals of processes that occur on Earth and act to regulate the surface temperature of our planet. I am passionate about accessible science, science communication & outreach, as well as science policy. Which is why I love The Conversation and its mission!