Kathryn Mansfield Matera, associate professor of chemistry, has been selected as the third recipient of the A.L. Hook Emerging Scholar Professorship in Science and Mathematics at Elon University. The professorship provides funding and opportunities for faculty to mentor students and involve undergraduates in research and special projects.
Matera will receive an annual salary supplement, research materials and funds for travel and student research. She will hold the rotating professorship for a three-year term.
Matera joined the Elon faculty in 2007 with the goal of establishing a new biochemistry major. She previously was a faculty member for 11 years at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio where she was chair of the chemistry department and taught general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, introduction to neuroscience and other science courses. She also mentored 47 students while a professor at the college and many of her students have received their doctorate and masters degrees.
Matera has dedicated years to scientific research in organic chemistry, bioorganic and biochemistry and has received two grants from the National Institutes of Health. During her time at Elon, Matera has investigated lipid and protein oxidation, examined radical generation by amyloid-beta fibril plaques and assessed inhibitory effects of natural products on acetylcholinesterase. Her research at Elon is a continuation of the research she conducted while at Baldwin-Wallace and as a visiting scientist in 2003 to the University of Dundee in Scotland.
With the support of the professorship she plans to pursue interests in enzyme-related studies and organic synthesis as a method for examining biological systems or processes. She would also like to use the funding to support biochemistry students performing independent research.
Matera currently serves on Elon’s Academic Standing Committee, the Curriculum Committee, Shared Governance Task Force and the Pharmaceutical School Review. She has published numerous articles in journals and magazines and has received various grants for research projects.
Matera has a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of California Davis and a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Pitzer College (Claremont Colleges) in California. Prior to her work in academia, she was a research chemist for Chevron Research and Technology Company and a senior research scientist for SymBiotech, Inc.
Tommy Holmes and Harris L. Hendricks, Elon alumni, established the A.L. Hook Emerging Scholar Professorship in Science and Mathematics to honor former physics and mathematics professor, Alonzo Lohr Hook, and to support science, research and student involvement at Elon. Previous faculty members who have held the professorship are Crista Arangala and Kyle Altmann.