Borrowing an idea from Daniel and Katrine’s outdoor wedding adventure, we’d like to start introducing some Spoonhowopians virtually! So without further ado… Katherine Ann Copic!

Some etymology: Kathy is named for a friend of her mom’s (and because “Katherine” has so many great diminutives, like Katrina). Her middle name, Ann, also belongs to both of her grandmothers. Copic is a Slovenian name and was (at least I’m told) originally written ÄŒopič and pronounced more like cho-PEACH.

Many of Kathy’s camp experiences took place at Camp Michigania,* a camp for University of Michigan alumni (like many of Kathy’s relatives on her mother’s side). Pictured here with her younger siblings (John and Liz) Kathy spent several vacations at Camp Michigania playing capture-the-flag, drinking bug juice, and doing arts & crafts, especially boondoggle (which she called “making lanyards”).

*No, we didn’t make this name up.

Kathy Copic met Dan Spoonhower far above Cayuga’s waters, when they were both living on the “3rd main” hallway of Risley Residential College. She still knows more verses of the alma mater than he does.

Fast forward ten years to 2007, and Kathy Copic is nearly-almost-totally done with her Ph.D. in particle physics. (She too will be a UofM alumna!) For the last year, she has been living in Pittsburgh while she applied for jobs and finished writing her thesis. Soon, she will be off to Switzerland to work at CERN (on behalf of Columbia University) as a Post-Doctoral Researcher (a.k.a. post-doc)!

When she is not shopping for food, or looking at recipes, or baking desserts, or barbecuing, or taking pictures of numbers, she’s writing on her blog (from time to time, at least).