Katharine Burn

College of Engineering

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Katharine Zona Burn graduated as a valedictorian from Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum, Utah in May 2015. She will receive her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in Aerospace Engineering in May 2019. For the past three years, Katharine has worked in USU’s Mechanics at Extreme Temperatures Lab with Dr. Ryan Berke. Her research was funded by USU’s Engineering Undergraduate Research Program to study how the diffraction limit of light affects optical strain measurements at high magnifications and long working distances. Katharine also received an NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates fellowship which allowed her to conduct research on diesel combustion at the University of Alabama during the summer of 2017. She then presented her research at the Annual APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Conference in November 2017. In the summer of 2018, Katharine participated in a competitive internship at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After graduation, Katharine is looking forward to beginning an internship at Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems in Promontory, Utah. She is also looking forward to pursuing a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and hopes to be able to conduct research on propulsion systems.