KATE HARRIS is a 29-year-old Canadian writer, adventurer, and scientist with a passion for wild places and a longstanding grudge against borders. Her expeditions have taken her to wildernesses on all seven continents—including Antarctica—for the sake of research, adventure, and writing.

As a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Kate earned a Master's in the history of science, focusing on exploration and geopolitics in contested mountain borderlands. Prior to that she studied biology as a Morehead scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill. She earned another Master's in earth & planetary sciences at MIT.

In 2010 Kate was named a "Woman of Discovery" by Wings WorldQuest for her efforts to advocate for wilderness conservation across borders. Her writing has been published in Wend Magazine, Outpost Magazine, and The Explorers Journal. She has been featured on National Geographic and CBC radio.

Kate is currently writing a book about Cycling Silk, her 10,000 km biking journey along the Silk Road to explore how borders make and break what is wild in the world, from mountains to people's minds.

"I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wondering awed about on a splintered wreck I’ve come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down."  -Annie Dillard