Kelly Weinersmith (née Smith) is an American scientist, New York Times best selling writer, and podcaster. She is a member of the faculty at Rice University, and an alumni collaborator with the Parasite Ecology Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is a regular co-host of the Science... sort of podcast, and the co-author (with her husband, cartoonist Zach Weinersmith) of Soonish, a science book. Weinersmith was a speaker at Smithsonian Magazine's "2015 Future Is Here Festival".