UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #785
KIESSLING, LAURA

KIESSLING, Laura (1960- )
Hilldale Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Director, Keck Center for Chemical Genomics 
At UW: 1991-

Interviewed: 2006	
Interviewer: Sandy Pfahler
Length: 1.75 hours

Early years and education; MIT; Graduate study at Yale; Synthetic organic chemistry;  Cal Tech postdoc; UW chemistry department; Biochemistry department; Tenure; Research; Field of chemical biology; Courses taught; Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program; Cluster hires; Keck Center for Chemical Genomics; Campus climate for women; American Chemical Society; MacArthur Foundation Fellowship;  Family. 

Interview Session (June 16, 2006): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:56	Laura Kiessling was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.

00:01:27	Childhood experiments might account for her interest in science.

00:03:16	She describes a math teacher who influenced her.

00:04:40	She talks about her family.  Her father is a lawyer and her mother is an occupational therapist.  

00:05:31	LK attended UW-Madison as an undergraduate for one year before transferring to MIT.  She studied chemistry with Art Ellis.

00:09:07	She was so impressed by women studying science at MIT during a visit there that she decided to transfer.  She describes her experience at MIT.

00:16:38	LK worked with George Whitesides and Bill Roush.

00:19:21	She went to Yale for graduate school in 1983 to work with Stuart Schreiber.  LK talks about some influential professors with whom she studied.

00:23:12	She didn’t encounter female faculty during her graduate career.  LK speaks generally about role models and gender.

00:25:20	Before going to Yale she worked at Pfizer.  Although she enjoyed working in industry, she knew that she wanted a career in academia where she could have greater intellectual freedom.

00:28:05	Her research at Yale was in synthetic organic chemistry.  She specifically focused on making an antibiotic molecule that cuts DNA.  This research interested her further in the interface between chemistry and biology.

00:29:37	She pursued a postdoc with Peter Dervan at Cal Tech to learn more about biology. 

00:31:19	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:20	Laura Kiessling describes some of her postdoctoral colleagues at Cal Tech.

00:33:07	Chancellor Donna Shalala called LK to recruit her to the University of Wisconsin.

00:35:23	She talks about the national reputation of the chemistry department.

00:36:14	She was initially hired into chemistry but her appointment was split between chemistry and biochemistry in 1997.  She has two different offices and two labs.

00:38:22	LK describes her tenure process and the challenges of teaching, recruiting students to her lab, and writing grants for research funding.

00:43:25	The two major aspects of her research are the roles of carbohydrates in biology and the transmission of extracellular signals.

00:46:54	LK and her lab developed a way to look rapidly at what types of molecules influence cellular decisions.

00:47:58	She studies how mycobacterium, which cause tuberculosis, put unique carbohydrates on their cell surface.
	
00:50:13	She talks about her two labs, which are divided by expertise.

00:54:12	LK discusses the atmosphere for collaborative research on campus.

00:54:16	Most of her research is funded federally by NIH.  She talks about the application process.

00:58:07	LK describes the emerging field of chemical biology.  She plays a key role in defining this field in her capacity as editor of the journal of the American Chemical Society.

01:00:41	During the summer she mentors graduate and undergraduate students.  During the school year she teaches organic chemistry, the undergraduate chemistry lab, graduate courses, undergraduate biochemistry seminars, protein structure and function, and new chemical biology courses.

01:02:39	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:02:42	Laura Kiessling continues to describe courses she teaches in chemical biology.

01:05:33	She talks about teaching undergraduates in organic chemistry.

01:11:30	LK manages the Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program for graduate students.

01:14:00	She wrote a proposal for the cluster hire of three new faculty members in chemical biology.

01:14:22	She and other colleagues gathered resources to set up the Keck Center for Chemical Genomics.

01:15:14	The chief difficulty with cluster hires was the absence of the infrastructure to do the hiring.  Nevertheless cluster hiring has assisted the recruitment of exceptional faculty.

01:17:37	LK speaks about the climate for women on campus.  She serves on the chemistry department’s diversity committee, which recently voted to support women graduate students and postdocs when they have children.

01:24:03	LK talks about her activities in professional organizations: she edits ACS Chemical Biology, the journal of the American Chemical Society.  Previously she chaired study sections of the National Institutes of Health.

01:25:21	She is a member of the Sloan Foundation Fellowship Board.

01:26:06	LK describes honors and awards she has received, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the NSF Young Investigator Award.

01:33:52	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

01:33:53	Laura Kiessling talks about her family and her life outside of work.

01:44:16	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview.

END