Kim Payne is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. She currently oversees the Microbiology Teaching Lab spaces and teaches Intro to Microbiology Lab (BIOSC1855) and Virology Lab (BIOSC1740).
The Microbiology Teaching Labs train nearly 400 students each year in molecular and microbiological techniques, and the scaled-up experiments generate a lot of plastic and other waste. Kim and her colleagues have been addressing this by switching to reusable glassware when possible, recycling plastics with Polycarbin, creating reusable forms and activities with page-protectors, collecting chemicals for waste-to-energy treatment, and training students to appropriately dispose a variety of lab waste.
Kim earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Penn State with research in the Hanna-Rose lab and obtained her Ph.D. in Graham Hatfull’s lab here at Pitt studying mycobactiophage lysins, followed by a postdoc in the Kinchington lab investigating HSV-1 ocular infections. Now she enjoys exploring a diversity of bacteria and genetically engineering lytic phages with her upper-level undergraduate students, as well as brainstorming ways to increase the sustainability of Pitt’s many research labs. She has recently guided the Micro Teaching Labs to Sustainable Oak status in the Green Labs program and is excited to help other labs achieve similar goals. Otherwise, Kim enjoys crafting (especially when applied to science or something practical), gardening, and raising praying mantises and monarch caterpillars.
