Rachel N Austin 21st International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry 2025

Rachel N Austin

Rachel Narehood Austin is the Diana T. and P. Roy Vagelos Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at Barnard College, Columbia University in NYC. She joined the faculty in 2015 after 20 years on the faculty at Bates College in Lewiston ME. Her laboratory has a longstanding interest in understanding the mechanisms of metalloproteins, especially those important in the global cycling of elements and those important in the central nervous system. A major emphasis of her current research is the development of a detailed picture of both the structures and mechanisms of the metalloenzymes that have evolved to catalyze the oxidation of alkanes. Funding for her lab has been received from NSF, NIH, HHMI, the Merck/AAAS research fund, Pfizer, DOE, and the Dreyfus Foundation in the form of a Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award. She is the past chair (together with co-Chair Ariel Anbar) of the 2010 Environmental Bioinorganic Chemistry Gordon Research Conference, a former editorial board member of Metallomics and a current editorial board member of the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry and a reviewing editor for the journal Frontiers in Microbiological Chemistry. Rachel has been a member of the bioinorganic chemistry community since she began her independent career.