Climate scientist, environmental professional, communicator, climate and atmospheric modeler, interdisciplinary scholar. Almost 2 decades working in the field of climate science, from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab to a tenured faculty position at SAIC (a scientist teaching about climate to art students). Skills include:Academic research, Air quality modeling, climate modeling, atmospheric modelingRemote sensing data analysisProgramming languages: python, R, Fortran, matlab, NCLAnalysis of large data setsPublic speakingGrant writing Trans-disciplinary research bridging art and science University teaching Full bio:My current research and public outreach explores the synthesis of art and climate science and posits that engaging with artists, designers, and makers is instrumental to solving the climate crisis. She spoke about this work as the featured plenary speaker at the AGU Fall Meeting 2022. Mika is an out and proud transgender scientist (she/her pronouns) and a vocal advocate for the queer and trans communities in Chicago and beyond.Dr. Tosca has written about the importance of combining the imagination of art, design principles, environmental aesthetics, and climate science, and is often invited to speak about this on over 3 dozen occasions at various institutions.In 2022 she organized the first ever on-site art exhibition at the AGU Fall Meeting. She also spoke about the importance of combining art and science to non-scientists at the 2022 Honcho Campout queer electronic music festival. She is an active participant in the EcoVoice Project, a collective that uses music and interdisciplinary collaboration to inform, connect, and inspire people to act for environmentally just causes.In 2021 she was named to the Grist 50 Fixers list and in 2023 she was interviewed by HEATED’s Arielle Samuelson about her work and activism.Dr. Tosca earned her Ph.D. in Earth System Science at University of California, Irvine, in the Earth System Science Department, where she was advised by Dr. Jim Randerson and Dr. Charlie Zender. Her doctoral thesis was titled: "Fire and Smoke in the Earth System: Evaluating the impact of fire aerosols on regional and global climate"Prior to SAIC, Mika was featured on ABC7 news in Los Angeles talking about her study on the correlation between air pollution and global warming. She has been published in many academic journals including Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Geophysical Research Letters, and Remote Sensing.