Kira Matus is a sustainability expert who caught the travel bug as a child from her father (and fellow blogger, Roger Matus). A native New Englander, she has done a thorough survey of the region’s lively student culture while earning her ScB (Chemistry, Brown University), SM (Technology and Policy, MIT), and PhD (Public Policy, Harvard). With her studies finally at an end, she has been working as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University.

Despite her employer’s location in quaint New Haven, CT, Kira has been living in exile from her beloved NE, delving into the DC policy scene while residing in Northern Virginia.

Her focus is innovation for sustainable development, and she studies and writes on the development of green technologies and products in the chemical sector, along with innovation, environment and S&T policies in the US, China and India. This work has allowed her to visit some of the wonders of the world, like the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall. It has also allowed her to spend time in some of the most polluted industrial areas these places have to offer, which gives her an unusual perspective on her travels.

When she isn’t touring industrial sites, Kira is likely to be found deeply engaged in complex cooking, baking and brewing projects, hiking, biking (or being a gym rat when the weather refuses to cooperate) or reading just about anything she can get her hands on. This fall, she will embarking on her first long-term international relocation, taking up residence in London.