
© Max Kessler 2025

Katie Zhu
Hi, I'm Max.
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I'm a PhD candidate at Stanford University, where I research methane removal.
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Methane is much more potent than carbon dioxide and the one greenhouse gas that we may be able to restore to preindustrial levels in the atmosphere within our lifetime. This requires rapidly reducing methane emissions and, perhaps for emissions that we cannot avoid, removing methane in the air.
I study whether atmospheric methane removal is feasible and what its benefits and consequences could be.
I am privileged to be from an island in the Pacific Northwest, which has made climate change personal. As a child, I saw glaciers melting in the Olympic Mountains across the water and I become terrified by the predictions of rising seas flooding my home.
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Today I'm a researcher, activist, and photographer. Welcome to my website. Please explore around!
* Unless credited, all photos on this site are by me.​