Karen McKinnon

Climate scientist and professor

Karen Aline McKinnon

Karen McKinnon is an Associate Professor of Statistics and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research focuses on large-scale climate variability and change, with a particular emphasis on connections to high-impact weather events like heat waves.1 2

Some key facts about Karen McKinnon:

She studies extreme heat and climate change as an assistant professor with both the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the department of statistics and data science.3
In 2024, she received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for her groundbreaking research on extreme heat and climate change.3 6
Her research proposal, titled 'Understanding Changes in Summertime Continental Temperature Extremes,' focuses on the mounting challenge of heat waves in the context of climate change.3
Before joining UCLA in November 2018, she was an Applied Scientist at Descartes Labs and an Advanced Study Program post-doctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She received her PhD in 2015 from Harvard University, working with Peter Huybers.2
Her work on predictability of heat waves has been covered by news outlets including the New York Times, Fox News, and the Washington Post.2

McKinnon's research sits at the nexus of climate science and statistics, shedding light on the interactions between natural variability and human-caused climate change.4 Her LinkedIn profile is linkedin.com/in/karen-mckinnon-566bb415.5