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Katherine French

Katherine (Kate) French is a research geochemist in the Central Energy Resources Science Center (CERSC) at the USGS in Denver, Colorado. She specializes in organic and petroleum geochemistry with a focus on hydrocarbon biomarkers in rocks, sediments, and oils. 

Kate received a B.S. in chemistry from Yale University (2009), completed a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the MIT/WHOI joint program in oceanography (2014), and was an Agouron postdoctoral fellow at WHOI (2016). She started with the USGS in 2017 where she focuses on molecular characterization of sedimentary organic matter, developing improved analytical methods, and enhancing understanding of biomarkers in the sedimentary record. She has applied her research to geobiology of early Earth and Phanerozoic anoxia, organic matter transport from land to sea, and petroleum systems. She is a member of the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group (MCSG), which is a team that provides technical expertise to maximize the scientific potential of the Mars samples that would be returned to Earth as part of Mars Sample Return (MSR).