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Katherine Petrie is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of California, San Diego, specializing in bioinformatics and genomics, which are essential tools in 21st-century biology. Her role focuses on integrating these fields into the undergraduate curriculum to enhance students' learning experiences and career prospects. She employs active learning strategies to maximize student engagement and is dedicated to developing innovative teaching techniques that foster scientific literacy and expand access to STEM education. Petrie incorporates Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURES) in her courses, providing students with opportunities to contribute meaningfully to scientific knowledge through laboratory work, which can ultimately increase inclusivity and retention in STEM fields. Her research interest lies in evolutionary biology, specifically the mechanisms driving evolution and the innovations that arise from these processes. Working in collaboration with Justin Meyer’s lab, she leverages genomic approaches to explore the evolution of new traits and functions, including significant discoveries such as a multi-tasking protein facilitating important evolutionary transitions. Additionally, her partnership with researchers at the Earth–Life Science Institute in Tokyo involves studying the selective interactions between nucleic acids and minerals that contributed to pre-Darwinian enrichment processes on early Earth.
University of California, San Diego • La Jolla, CA
Focuses on bioinformatics and genomics integration in undergraduate curriculum, utilizes active learning strategies, and incorporates CURES in teaching.
Administered by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Curricular groups include Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere (COAP), Geosciences (GEO), and Ocean Biosciences (OBP).