About Me
Welcome to my page! I’m Dr. Kelly Weinersmith*, and I’m a scientist, pop-sci author, and podcaster. My current positions include:
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- President, Helminthological Society of Washington
- Vice President, American Society of Parasitologists
- Adjunct Faculty, BioSciences Department at Rice University
- Research Associate, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
You can find out more about my work below, or by downloading my (sporadically updated) CV here.
*The “weiner” part is pronounced the same way as you pronounce weiner/wiener when talking about a hot dog or, well, the anatomical feature. As far as we can tell, the only folks with this last name are in our little family. Wondering how we ended up with it? Check out the tale on Story Collider.
Podcast
Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe
Produced by iHeart
Scientists Daniel and Kelly cannot stop talking about our amazing, wonderful, weird Universe! Each episode is a fun and easy-to-understand explanation of deep topics in science, from particles to black holes to moon colonies to aliens and insects and everything else in the Universe!
New episodes are available every Tuesday and Thursday. Find us on iHeart, Spotify, Apple, or RSS.
Popular Science Books
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space,
and Have We Really Thought This Through?
Penguin Press, 2023
Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind.
“Exceptional. . . Forceful, engaging and funny . . . This book will make you happy to live on this planet — a good thing, because you’re not leaving anytime soon.” —New York Times Book Review
This book was NYTimes Bestseller, and was short-listed for the 2023 L.A. Times Book Prize in Science and Technology. A City on Mars also received the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, and a 2024 Hugo in the Related Works category.
Photos below taken at the ceremony for the Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, and photo credit goes to the Royal Society.
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve And/Or Ruin Everything
Penguin Press, 2017
What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already? What is the hold-up?
In Soonish, Kelly and Zach give us a snapshot of what’s coming next — from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research, interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, and Zach’s trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
“Curiosity is a beautiful thing, and Kelly and Zach Weinersmith have it in spades. Their coauthored SOONISH is an unabashed nerd-out of a book, zinging from outer space to DNA, hardly pausing for breath. . . . The gleeful geeking out makes for a great read—I couldn’t help chuckling or outright cracking up a number of times—while surreptitiously teaching some really important science. It’s a winning combination. The sheer breadth of topics covered is also amazing: Probably no other book in history has seriously described the science behind both tentacle construction robots and the human nasal cycle.” —Colin McCormick, Science
This book was a NYTimes Bestseller, a Wall Street Journal Best Science Book of the Year, and a Popular Science Best Science Book of the Year.
Research
There is so much weird and wonderful stuff that happens on this planet! I have a PhD from the University of California Davis in Ecology, which has given me the opportunity to study the diets of introduced Largemouth Bass in the Sacramento-San Jouquin Delta in California, the reproductive behaviors of male Smallmouth Bass in northern Wisconsin, manipulation of host behavior by Crypt Keeper Wasps in southern Florida, and much more. It’s been great fun.
At this point, usually a scientist will tell you about the overarching question that drives their research, but I can’t pick just one. So check out my research publications by clicking the buttons below to see what I’ve been up to.
I currently hold an appointment as adjunct faculty in the BioSciences department at Rice University, and a Research Associate position with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. You can download my (sporadically updated) CV here.
