Kathryn Edwards

Kathryn Edwards joined the department in 1978, having taught for two years at Rollins College in Florida and completing a two-year post-doctoral program at Yale. She was the first woman tenured in the natural sciences division and the first woman chair of the department.

Her research focused initially on auxin transport in roots turned to investigations of root gravitropism funded by NSF and NASA. These studies led to the first investigations of stretch activated ion channels in plant cells and later in the gravitroping fungus Phycomyces. Phycomyces studies led the lab to intriguing cytoskeletal interactions. A switch was made to the protist Dictyostelium in order to follow interest in cytoskeletal interactions, specifically myosin heavy chain regulations during the unusual Dictyostelium life cycle. In 2012 Prof. Edwards began research in the Amazon lowland blackwater rainforest in northeastern Peru.  

She is coordinator for the Kenyon Academic Partnership in Biology and works with high schools across Ohio. Additionally she is adviser to the Kenyon Equestrian Team and she breeds and shows champion Boxer dogs.

Areas of Expertise

Botany, cell physiology, women's and gender studies.

Education

1974 — Doctor of Philosophy from University of North Carolina

1969 — Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College