Short Bio
Dr. Karen (Dr. Mrs. High) has been at
Oklahoma State University since 1991 (12+
years)! This year she had her big 40 birthday
although she is convinced that she is still 22!
Dr. High received her B.S. from the
University of Michigan in 1985, her M.S. from
Penn State in 1988 and her PhD. in 1991. She was
born in Ann Arbor, MI and grew up in Kalamazoo,
Michigan. As a kid she was very involved with
singing, theatre, dance, and swim team and
Marching Band. She was also a nerd as she was on
her high school traveling math team (she would
take math tests on Saturdays!).
In college, Dr. Karen became friends with
other nerds and married Dr. Marty High at Penn
State. She traveled quite a bit to New York City
and Washington, D.C. with these friends and even
picked grapes for a local winery! The grad
students also grew a vegetable garden together!!
For her M.S., Dr. High did a biomedical
project that looked at the mechanics of
transport during high frequency ventilation. For
her PhD., she looked at solving nonlinear
chemical process optimization problems using
parallel and super computing!
Since coming to Oklahoma, Dr. Mrs. High has
been involved primarily with process design,
optimization and control projects. These have
had an environmental bent (how to minimize waste
while maximizing profit), a catalytic focus (how
to do refinery operations better with new
catalysts) and a control aspect (how to control
to economic optimums as opposed to a set point).
She has thoroughly enjoyed working with
undergraduates and graduates on these projects.
Dr. High is also very interested in
creativity and entrepreneurial skills and how
they apply to engineering education. This
includes product design and development of new
technologies and all issues that get them
commercialized from cradle to grave! She also
has a love of anything Disney and has even spent
time at Walt Disney World looking at
Imagineering and other behind the scene aspects.
Outside of OSU, Dr. High has two daughters
(Jessica and Abigail) that keep her very busy as
well as a cat, 2 dogs, and fish! Dr. Karen
enjoys reading and travel.
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