Katelin Harris Named an American Chemistry Scholar

Harris One of 350 Students to Earn Recognition

Katelin Harris ’22 of the Marist water polo team was named a Chemistry for Life 2020 American Chemistry Society (ACS) Scholar, the organization made official over the weekend. Harris was one of 350 students to earn this prestigious recognition.

The ACS Scholars Program awards renewable scholarships to underrepresented minority students who are majoring in undergraduate chemistry-related disciplines and are also intending to pursue careers in chemistry-related fields. To date, more than 3,000 students have received a funding from the ACS Scholars Program.

Founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress, the American Chemistry Society is one of the world's largest scientific organizations with more than 150,000 members in 140+ countries. Its mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. Its hope is to improve people's lives through the transforming power of chemistry.

Harris has been a member of the ACS club since her freshman year at Marist. Her junior year, Harris was awarded the Mid-Hudson ACS College Recognition Award—which is awarded to the top science junior at each school in the Mid-Hudson ACS chapter. Harris also received the ACS Scholarship Award, which is a national scholarship that is awarded to roughly 100 students every year.

In the summer of 2019, Harris worked as a contamination control engineering intern and worked on the James Webb space telescope. She helped monitor levels of contamination and mitigate issues that could lead to decreased performance of the spacecraft. This year, she advanced to the chemistry laboratories section. Working there, she helps support all programs that need chemical testing including STRIKE, Advanced Mission Systems, and James Webb.

 Harris also does undergraduate research with Dr. John M Galbraith. With Dr. Galbraith, Harris is researching computational chemistry to optimize valence bond calculations on large molecules.