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

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