M. CATHER SIMPSON
 |
M. Cather Simpson is currently an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry. Simpson's decision to pursue chemistry was not a life goal. In fact, she
was turned off by organic
chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia and took no more chemistry after her second year
. She initially intended
be a doctor, but undergraduate research in biology led her to research. She traveled to the University of New Mexico to work on her M.D., Ph.D. with a concentration in cell biology. It was while there that she enrolled in the
undergraduate physical
chemistry course that would change her career plans entirely. The research she was doing was too “encyclopedic” for her taste;
it seemed so memorization oriented. Physical
chemistry satisfied Simpson's
need to understand the molecular-level fundamentals of how things work
that her medical research could not. She never returned to medical school.
|
Professor Simpson and Mary Barkley joined the Case faculty in 1996, though Simpson did not arrive on campus until January 1997. They were the first female professors in the Department of Chemistry. She feels her involvement in the ACES program has enlightened her about gender biases in the workplace. She is especially appreciative of Virginia Valian's Why So Slow? She is intrigued by the possibility of expanding Title IX to academia and feels that such a reach would be beneficial.
Just recently, Professor Simpson and her team received an instrument grant worth about three-quarters of a million dollars. She co-directs the fledgling Center for Chemical Dynamics, a research and education initiative that she hopes will attract attention from international researchers to local universities and high schools. She also directs the Case Chemistry Scholars Program, a graduate fellowship program in chemistry that targets high quality students, particularly women and those from underrepresented groups in science, mathematics, engineering and technology fields.
M. Cather Simpson's website can be found at this link. Additionally, one can visit her research group's website at this link.
Article and interview by Casey Hicks.
If you are interested in reading Virginia Valian's Why So Slow?, you may view the first chapter at this link. If you would rather purchase the book, please visit Amazon.com's listing for this book (link will appear in a new window).
