Kristala Jones Prather facts for kids

Kristala Jones Prather is a brilliant American professor who teaches chemical engineering at a famous university called the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She studies how to use tiny living things, like bacteria, to make useful small chemicals. It's like teaching nature to create new things!

Her Early Life and Education

Kristala Jones Prather was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Longview, Texas. Her physics and math teachers inspired her to study chemical engineering. She went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned her first degree in 1994. Later, she earned her advanced degree, a Ph.D., from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999.

Professor Prather has also been involved with important groups like the National Society of Black Engineers and the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. These groups help support and encourage Black students and professionals in science and engineering.

What She Does: Research and Career

Before becoming a professor, Dr. Prather worked at a company called Merck & Co. for four years. There, she focused on using biological processes to make medicines. Instead of using harsh chemical reactions, she found ways to use living systems to create important drugs.

In 2004, she joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A few years later, in 2009, her team achieved something amazing. They used a common bacteria called Escherichia coli (E. coli) to produce a chemical called glucaric acid. To do this, they added special enzymes from three different living things into the E. coli. Enzymes are like tiny biological machines that help chemical reactions happen.

In 2014, she was honored as a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. By 2016, she was leading her own research group, known as the Prather lab. Her lab specializes in something called retrobiosynthesis. This is a way of designing new biological pathways using synthetic DNA. It's like giving cells new instructions to make specific products.

In 2018, she shared her expert knowledge with the National Academy of Sciences. She talked about ways to protect against biological threats, which is very important for keeping people safe.

Professor Prather has received many awards for her groundbreaking research. For example, in 2021, she won the Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress from the American Institute of Chemical Engineering. She was also named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018.

In late 2023, Professor Prather was chosen to lead MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering. This is a very important role!

Besides her research, Professor Prather is also known for being a great teacher and mentor. She helps guide and support students. In 2016, she was featured in a show called Spellbound, how kids become scientists. She has also worked on several projects to help students of color at MIT succeed.

Honors and Awards

• 2005 - Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award
• 2007 - Technology Review "TR35" Young Innovator Award
• 2010 - National Science Foundation CAREER Award
• 2010 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching
• 2011 - Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award
• 2012 - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions
• 2014 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology MacVicar Faculty Fellow
• 2017 - Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Charles Thom Award
• 2017 - Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award
• 2018 - AAAS Fellow
• 2018 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seed Grant
• 2021 - Gordon Y. Billard Award
• 2021 - AIChE's Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering