Katie Portman

PhD Student

About Katherine Portman

Katie Portman is a first year Ph.D. student focusing on the archaeology of the U.S. Southwest. She grew up in the Chicago suburbs and attended the University of Notre Dame, where she graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Anthropology and Applied Mathematics. Katie has academic fieldwork experience in sub-arctic Canada, coastal Ireland, suburban Greece, and the desert U.S. Southwest, and worked as a Field Technician for several Cultural Resource Management firms in Arizona and New Mexico before beginning her studies at UA.

At the University of Arizona, Katie works with Professor Ron Towner in the Laboratory for Tree-Ring Research as a recipient of the Emil H. Haury Dendrochronology Fellowship. She seeks to combine site sampling, dendrochronological analysis, and hydrological modeling to study moisture management and community structure in arid lands. Ideally, her research will both enable a deeper understanding of the past and inform more efficient water management in the present.