Kate Jackson

Canadian herpetologist, Kate Jackson has been passionate about amphibians and reptiles since before kindergarten. Since then she has traveled the world and worked in labs and museums puzzling over such questions as how venomous snakes evolved. In addition to many publications in specialized scientific journals, Kate has published “Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science and Survival in the Congo” (Harvard University Press, 2008), a memoir about collecting snakes in the swamp forests of the Republic of Congo, and “Katie of the Sonoran Desert (Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum Press, 2010), a children’s book about radio-tracking rattlesnakes. Her most recent book is "Snakes of Central and Western Africa" in collaboration with Jean-Philippe Chippaux (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019). Kate Jackson holds a Hon.B.Sc and M.Sc. from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University. She is an Associate Professor of Biology at Whitman College.