Hanna Key

I came to Davidson in 2019, after working for two years as an assistant professor at Grinnell College. I came to Davidson, because I have always aspired to be an educator. Historically, science classrooms and careers have not afforded everyone an equal opportunity to participate, achieve, and be recognized. I believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to learn about, participate in, and ultimately shape scientific knowledge and perspectives. Moreover, I believe that society benefits from a populace that is widely conversant in science. As an educator, I aim to inspire students to pursue careers in science and to view the diverse challenges facing the world with a perspective that is guided and enhanced by their understanding of science. 

Originally, I am from Wisconsin, and I went to college at Grinnell College in central Iowa, where I studied chemistry, biology, and pluralistic and inclusive teaching. With teaching and research experience in organic, biological, inorganic, and analytical chemistry, I consider myself a multidisciplinary chemist. I was fortunate to become educated in such a broad range of chemistry during my Ph.D. studies, which aimed to engineer artificial metalloenzymes to catalyze abiological, synthetic organic reactions. Biological phenomena have long inspired the problems that chemists approach and the solutions that chemists develop, and my ongoing research explores the interface of biological processes and synthetic chemistry problems to turn biological phenomena into tools for the synthetic chemist. 

Examples include:

• Design and evolution of enzymes to catalyze abiological, organic reactions
• Application of enzymes to determine more efficiently the outcomes of organic reactions
• Preparation of new, complex, bioactive molecules by late-stage functionalization