851: Examining Extreme Weather Events and Earth's Most Intense Storms - Dr. Kristen Rasmussen

Dr. Kristen Lani Rasmussen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Research in Kristen's lab focuses on studying extreme events, particularly weather events such as heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, hail storms, and other events that have a big impact on humans and society. She is interested in examining these extreme event systems in the context of our current climate and how they may change in the future. In addition to spending quality time with her fantastic family, Kristen enjoys playing jazz trumpet. She has played jazz and bluegrass music with various bands in Colorado. Kristen received her bachelor's degree in meteorology and mathematics as well as music from the University of Miami. She then attended the University of Washington where she was awarded her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Atmospheric Sciences. Afterwards, Kristen conducted postdoctoral research at the National Center for Atmospheric Research before joining the faculty at Colorado State University. She has received a number of awards and honors in her career, including the Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Science from the Desert Research Institute, the College of the Environment Outstanding Community Impact Award from the University of Washington, and the Very Early Career Award from the American Meteorological Society's Mesoscale Processes Conference. In addition, she was recently awarded the Graduate Mentoring and Advising Award from Colorado State University as well as the George T. Abell Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award from the College of Engineering at Colorado State University. In our interview, Kristen tells us more about her life and science.

You can listen to 851: Examining Extreme Weather Events and Earth's Most Intense Storms - Dr. Kristen Rasmussen online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

851: Examining Extreme Weather Events and Earth's Most Intense Storms - Dr. Kristen Rasmussen is an episode from People Behind the Science Podcast - Stories from Scientists about Science, Life, Research, and Science Careers by Dr. Marie McNeely.

This episode is 38:41 long.

This episode was published on Feb 9, 2026.

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