I’m originally from Harrisburg Pennsylvania and I attended Dover Area High School where I learned to love chemistry from my high school teacher, Mrs. Bertha Spahr. I continued to study chemistry in the rich liberal arts tradition among the civil war battlegrounds at Gettysburg College (BS 2004).  During visits to graduate schools, I discovered a nurturing, friendly, and interdisciplinary environment at Duke University and decided to pursue my Ph.D. there with Dr. Katherine Franz as my mentor. I began graduate school as an organic chemist in the Integrated Graduate Research Training (IGERT) program and earned a certificate from the Pratt School of Engineering’s Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems (CBIMMS). Through interdisciplinary training, I quickly became fascinated with bioinorganic chemistry and the roles that metal ions play in biological systems. At Duke, I took classes in chemistry, engineering, education, learned middle-eastern dance, ran my first marathon, and found lifelong friends (including my husband, Dr. Jim Parise). After graduating with my Ph.D. in 2010, I joined the laboratory of Toxicology and Pharmacology at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Science to study metabolomics of cadmium toxicity under a chemist-turned-geneticist, Dr. Jonathan Freedman.

I began a faculty position at Saint Mary’s College in 2012, and earned tenure there in 2019. In 2021, I accepted a faculty position at Duke University, and am continuing the undergraduate-focused research program that I started at Saint Mary’s.  My research interests are in bioinorganic chemistry, and my expertise is in human copper homeostasis and in using model peptides as tools toward understanding metal-protein interactions.

I am passionate about undergraduate research as a tool for teaching chemistry. Additionally, I am interested in technology-enhanced teaching, development of interactive upper-division courses and development of interdisciplinary lower-division courses that spark student interest in STEM.

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CONTACT

Dr. Kathryn L. Haas (she/hers)
Associate Professor of the Practice, Chemistry
1224 French Family Science Center
124 Science Drive
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
919-660-1525
kathryn.haas AT duke.edu
khaaslab.com
Appointments