Amber, Rex and Mom in Albany, Western Australia (May 1982).

A brief autobiography

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I was born in January 1980, four weeks premature. I used to joke that it was the only time in my life that I was ever early! But, several decades later, I am finally managing to escape from the Kerr family motto, Sero sed Serio ("Late but in Earnest"). Well, the earnest part still applies.

During my childhood I lived in various parts of Western Australia, Queensland, and California - mostly in rural areas, so I spent many hours outdoors with my two brothers, as well as with guinea pigs, chickens, cats, and whatever neighbour animals I could befriend. When not engaged in stick-fights or role-playing games with Rex and Cliff, I could usually be found climbing a tree, reading a book, or doing both simultaneously.

This immersion in nature, along with parents who were enthusiastic about science, led to my career in environmental science and ecology. After being home-schooled for most of my life, I enrolled in Central Queensland University at age 17, then transferred to the University of Queensland, and then again to Stanford University. I completed my BS and MS in Earth Systems at Stanford in 2002, and am currently enrolled in the PhD program in Energy and Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. You can read about my research here.

As for demographics, I am female, white (my mother's family is Lithuanian, my dad's Scottish), a duel Australian/US citizen, right-handed, have brown hair and green eyes, and can never remember how much I weigh. And my blood type is O negative. There... more than you ever wanted to know!

If you'd like to know even more, here is an outline of what I have been doing my whole life:

Date	Event	Location
January 1980	Hello, world!	Perth, Western Australia
December 1985	Family moves cross-country	Palm Cove, Queensland
March 1986	Too hot in Palm Cove, so we move again	Atherton, Queensland
October 1986	Family moves cross-Pacific	El Cerrito, California
September 1987	Two years of elementary school (after that, back to home-schooling until university)	El Cerrito, California
October 1994	Family moves back across the Pacific	Mackay, Queensland
February 1997	Start Bachelor's degree at Central Queensland University	Mackay, Queensland
February 1998	Transfer to the University of Queensland	Brisbane, Queensland
September 1998	Transfer to Stanford University (across the Pacific again)	Stanford, California
June 2000	Work at NASA/GSFC for the summer	Greenbelt, Maryland
June 2001	Finish BS in Earth Systems	Stanford, California
June 2001	Work at Rocky Mountain Biological Lab and USDA for the summer	Gothic, CO and Beltsville, MD
September 2002	Finish MS in Earth Systems	Stanford, California
April 2003	Work on biomimicry at Rocky Mountain Institute	Snowmass, Colorado
August 2003	Start PhD program at UC Berkeley	Berkeley, California
July 2004	Work on Millennium Villages Project for the summer	Kisumu, Kenya
November 2007	Pass qualifying exam	Berkeley, California
July 2008 - 2010	Dissertation field work	Zomba, Malawi
December 2010	Finish PhD in Energy and Resources	Berkeley, California

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Last updated February 27, 2008.