Kate Thornhill

I study what happens to land, water, and communities when the internet moves in.

As a Geography & Geospatial Science graduate student at Oregon State University, my research focuses on hyperscale data centers — the massive facilities that power our digital lives — and the environmental costs they leave behind in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Using GIS and remote sensing, I map changes in land surface temperature and groundwater to understand who absorbs those costs, and why it's rarely the people making the siting decisions.

My path to this research runs through fifteen years of work as a digital and data librarian at the University of Oregon, where I led public scholarship initiatives connecting higher education to the communities it too often talks past. That work was never done alone — it was built with non-profits, community organizations, faculty from across disciplines, and community members who brought knowledge that no institution could replicate. I carry that same approach into my research.

I believe in open research. I want my work to reach the people who can use it — organizers, policymakers, water managers, and the communities living next to these facilities — not just the people with journal access.