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STEM Ambassadors

The STEM Ambassador Program began in 2016 as a training program for a small cohort of University of Utah scientists. Since then, we have grown to work with over 170 graduate students, post-docs, faculty, staff, and undergraduate students. Scroll down to learn about the scientists who have participated. Contact us if you would like to reach out to a STEM Ambassador.

Note that many Ambassador bios were uploaded when the Ambassador joined the program and may not be current.

Kathleen Ritterbush

Photo of Kathleen Ritterbush

Kathleen Ritterbush is a paleontologist at the University of Utah. She studies what ocean life was like during and before the time of the dinosaurs. Recent projects include modeling sea shells of extinct squid-like ammonite fossils to test if the animals could swim, and hunting for fossil sea sponges in ancient rocks. Because these ancient rocks are pushed into mountains by the Earth’s shifting surface, fossil hunting takes her across deserts of the American West and up into the Peruvian Andes. She is most interested in what animals flourish after global mass extinction events, and how this is related to world-wide environmental changes.