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In early December, Roxanne Karimi, who earned her Ph.D. at Dartmouth in
2007, received the
Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award from the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences’ Superfund Basic Research Program (SBRP). The
award is presented annually to an exceptional graduate student or postdoctoral
scholar within the SBRP, and it honors the scientific and mentoring
accomplishments of the late Karen Wetterhahn, a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth who died in
1997 as a result of an accidental exposure to dimethylmercury. Wetterhahn was
an internationally recognized scientist who studied the carcinogenic effects of
chromium and nickel, and she also was a pioneer in efforts to encourage and
support women in the sciences, helping launch Dartmouth’s Women in Science Project (WISP).
Roxanne Karimi (Photo by Joseph Mehling ´69)
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The Wetterhahn Award, now in its 10th year, was presented at the SBRP’s 20th
anniversary meeting. Karimi’s research involves the movement and accumulation
of metals like mercury in aquatic food webs and environments. At Dartmouth, she
was also active in WISP, working with several undergraduate women in her
lab.
“It’s wonderful to see Roxanne’s excellent research recognized with this
award,” says Carol Folt, the Dartmouth Professor of Biological Sciences and Karimi’s
advisor. “And it was particularly meaningful on the tenth anniversary of this
award because Karen Wetterhahn was such an inspiration for so many of us, both
here at Dartmouth and in the wider research community.” Folt is also dean of the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences.
Three scholars with Dartmouth connections have won this award: Karimi, who
is now a postdoctoral fellow at the State University of New York at Stony
Brook; Angeline Andrew (Ph.D. 2000), now an assistant professor of community
and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School; and Anne Spuches, who was a
postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry from 2003 to 2007 and is
currently an assistant professor of chemistry at East Carolina University. All
the previous winners of the Wetterhahn Award were invited to the event as part
of the anniversary program.
Wetterhahn also served as the first director of Dartmouth’s SBRP, which is
now in its 13th year, and her legacy was apparent at the meeting.
“Dartmouth’s toxic metals research program was well represented at the
Superfund Annual Meeting,” says Joshua Hamilton, a professor of pharmacology
and toxicology and the director of Dartmouth’s SPRB and its Center for Environmental Health
Sciences. “Not only were all the Wetterhahn awardees there, our faculty
gave invited talks and chaired sessions. My graduate student Courtney Kozul won
one of the four best student poster awards—out of about 86 student
posters.”
Hamilton, who also worked with Wetterhahn at Dartmouth, maintains the SBRP’s
commitment to interdisciplinary education and research.
“I am especially proud of the strong students, both graduate and
undergraduate, who have been trained in our program since it was established in
1995. I know Karen would consider that one of our top accomplishments.”
By SUSAN KNAPP
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