Data Science

Katherine Quinn

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Katherine Quinn is a Data Scientist at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Prior to joining the Data Team, she worked on Capitol Hill as a Congressional Science Fellow sponsored by the American Institute of Physics as part of the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship Program, where she focused on legislative issues in energy & environment, science, and R&D funding in the U.S. Department of Defense. Katherine holds a B.S. in math and physics from McGill University, and a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University. For her postdoc, she worked as an Associate Research Fellow at the Princeton/CUNY Center for the Physics of Biological Function, where she conducted research on emergent phenomena in complex systems with a focus on models in biophysics and machine learning.

Pandemic threats are increasing as globalization, urbanization, and encroachment on animal habitats cause infectious outbreaks to become more frequent and severe. It is imperative that the United States build a pipeline of medical countermeasure development, beginning with basic scientific research and culminating in approved therapies. This report assesses preparedness for families of viral pathogens of pandemic potential and offers recommendations for steps the U.S. government can take to prepare for future pandemics.