I am an atmospheric physicist and scientific machine learning researcher at Columbia University. I serve as the AI for Science Director on the Executive Committee of the NSF Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP) Center, where I also lead the Scientific Machine Learning Research Thrust Group. I am an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering.

My current research develops physics-informed and agentic AI methods to understand cloud processes and improve their representation in Earth system models. I combine laboratory and field observations and high-resolution modeling with traditional process-based approaches and machine learning, with the goal of better understanding how aerosols and clouds impact the climate.

I received my Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago, where I was an NSF and NDSEG fellow, and previously worked at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at NOAA's Chemical Sciences Division, where I was on the science team for the NASA KORUS-AQ and ATom aircraft campaigns and the NOAA FIREX Firelab study.

Contact: kl3231@columbia.edu