Taylor Grad Pursues PhD, International Research and Future Goals with NASA

tcrow@taylorisd.org

When Brandee Carlson graduated from Taylor High School in 2009, she received the Leon and Kay Bohls Scholarship to help pursue interests in science and writing at the University of Texas. She now holds a degree in hydrogeology, is on schedule to graduate from the doctoral program at Rice University in 2019, and is currently part of an international research team traveling to China.

“I originally started out in communications thinking I was going to be a science writer,” Carlson said. “I ended up just loving all of my earth science courses and decided that I wanted to get more involved in earth sciences. I later found out you can also do quite a bit of writing through that path.”

Carlson is currently a doctoral candidate at Rice University in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. She is traveling to China for a three-week research project as part of an international research team to build predictive models for coastal sustainability. She will lead the part that focuses on how sediment is routed along the coast in response to the Yellow River changing its course every decade.

“I study how sediment moves through rivers and ends up along our coastlines,” Carlson said. “Right now, I am specifically studying the Yellow River in China which is one of the most sediment laden rivers in the world. Basically, what I study is how sediment builds up inside river channels and clogs the river channel and can lead to really catastrophic flooding.”

Brandee Carlson opens a six-meter-long aluminum barrel that is filled with sediment extracted from the delta of the Yellow River in China. The Taylor High School graduate holds a degree in hydrogeology from the University of Texas and is currently working on her PhD at Rice University. 

According to Carlson, this same process happens on all deltas worldwide, including the Mississippi River.

“It takes more like a thousand years to happen on the Mississippi River delta,” Carlson explained. “So, the idea is by studying a system that works on a short, observable time scale we can learn a lot about our own systems including the Mississippi.”

The research team consists of five individuals from American universities and two individuals from Chinese universities. Carlson is taking instruments with her that will measure the properties of swelling water, such as water velocity and direction, and how much sediment is in the water.

“I will go out to the river and parts of the delta and display these instruments in order to see how sediment is moving through the river and along the delta,” Carlson said. “We’re basically trying to figure out how that gets redistributed along the coast.”

Carlson and her team hope that with a better understanding of how sediment moves, scientists will be able to predict when and where it will build up and look for warning signs what will allow scientists to mitigate flooding for all coastlines.

Taylor native Brandee Carlson deploys instruments to the Yellow River delta in China to study how sediment moves through rivers    

When asked about plans for future research projects, this Taylor Duck is considering possibilities that extend far beyond Earth.

“We realize there are incredible features on the Martian surface that look like a lot of the landforms that we see on Earth, including deltas,” Carlson said. “There are these craters that sort of pockmark the surface of Mars and some of them have deltas built into the craters. That’s really significant because it implies that at some point a long, long time ago Mars likely had water on its surface and there was some kind of hydrological system that was basically allowing fluids to flow into the craters and build up these deltas.”

Carlson said she is interested in studying the Martian surface more in depth, and the likelihood that she will apply to be an astronaut in the future is very high.

“I’m waiting for NASA to announce its next opening,” she commented. “That being said, thousands of very qualified people apply for those positions and they end up picking about a dozen per round. So, I would say that the chances of me going to Mars are slim, but I will absolutely pursue it.”

For now, Carlson’s short-term goal is to start applying for faculty and post-doctoral positions with universities.

“I found through being a teaching assistant for a few years that I love teaching and I also love doing research, and being a professor at a university allows you to blend those two interests.”

Brandee Carlson began her education in Taylor ISD in Kindergarten and continued through the local schools, graduating from Taylor High School in 2009. During her senior year she was awarded the Leon and Kay Bohls scholarship.

“I am so incredibly thankful that I got that very generous boost,” she said. “Things certainly add up between books and supplies and tuition. I am so incredibly thankful that there is such a good network of support in Taylor to help our graduates go out and pursue their academic dreams.”

As a third grader at Pasemann Elementary, Brandee Carlson (left) enjoys digging in the dirt to plant flowers in front of the school. She grew up to earn a degree in hydrogeology from UT, and is part of an international research team studying sediment in the Yellow River in China.