Karen T. Lewis earned her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999, then began her study of Astrophysics at The Pennsylvania State Univeristy. After earning her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2005, Karen spent two years at the Goddard Space Flight Center in the X-ray Astrophysics laboratory. Her primary research interests are Active Galactic Nuclei, which she studies using data from orbiting X-ray satellites as well as optical data that she gathers at telescopes in Arizona and Chile.
Karen has many interests outside of astronomy, including music (primarily piano and hammer dulcimer), hiking and camping, traveling the world, baking, reading, and playing board games.