Uniting art and science, from concert hall to carbon cycle

Sarah Worden, shown above at the 2023 American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.

Growing up with a dad who studied earth sciences, Sarah Worden notes with amusement how her childhood bedroom had unusual décor, such as posters about the differences between good and bad ozone.

Though her path to a science career wasn’t a straight line, perhaps it’s no surprise this early immersion led her to become an earth scientist: Worden will earn her Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from UCLA this month. Next, she will study the carbon and water cycles of tropical rainforests at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help answer questions about climate change.

Between learning about ozone as a kid and studying water cycles in the Congo rainforest for her doctorate, however, the Southern California native spent years as a concert violinist. She took violin lessons over Skype with a teacher in Moscow before coming to UCLA, where she double-majored in music and physics as an undergraduate.

Continue reading at UCLA Newsroom: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/sarah-worden-art-science-carbon-cycle-commencement-2024