Catherine (Katie) Cooper joined DTM as a Carnegie Fellow in September. She obtained her Ph.D. in geophysics this spring from Rice University. A computational geodynamicist, Cooper has been working on the question of how the stable mantle roots of ancient continental lithosphere interact thermally and dynamically with the underlying convecting mantle. Her thesis included a study of the thermal structure of cratonic crust and mantle, and a parallel investigation of the deformational response of a chemical layer (depleted cratonic mantle) emplaced within the upper thermal boundary layer of convecting mantle. At DTM, Cooper plans to pursue follow-on studies of how continental lithosphere affects patterns of mantle convection.