Top Ten Scholar alum tackles methane emissions

Boise State alum and former Top Ten Scholar Audrey Parker '22 is gaining national attention for her cutting-edge research on methane emissions, recently featured by MIT News.

Now a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Parker is focused on tackling one of the most pressing challenges in climate science: reducing methane, a greenhouse gas significantly more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. Her work explores practical, scalable solutions to mitigate methane emissions from major sources such as dairy farms and coal mines, industries critical to both the U.S. economy and global emissions reduction efforts.

At the center of Parker's research is the development of innovative catalyst technologies designed to accelerate methane's natural breakdown into carbon dioxide, a process that would otherwise take more than a decade in the atmosphere. By speeding up this conversion, her work aims to deliver meaningful benefits while balancing energy use and overall environmental impact.

Parker's approach extends beyond the lab. She collaborates directly with industry partners and tests her technologies in real-world environments, ensuring that solutions are both effective and practical to deploy at scale. Her systems-level thinking evaluates not only the science, but also the economic and environmental trade-offs that determine whether a technology can succeed in the field.

A native of Boise, Parker credits her time at Boise State with shaping her path. As an undergraduate, she studied sustainable materials and earned the university's Top Ten Scholar distinction before pursuing research opportunities that led her to MIT.

Driven by a deep connection to the outdoors and the Idaho landscapes she grew up exploring, Parker's work is rooted in a simple goal: preserving the natural world for future generations.

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