UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #782
KALIL, KATHERINE

KALIL, Katherine  
Professor, Department of Anatomy; Former Associate Vice Chancellor
At UW: 1973-

Interviewed: 	2006	
Interviewer: 	Sandy Pfahler
Length: 	1.25 hours
Series:		Women in Science and Engineering

Family background; Bryn Mawr; Graduate study in English; Neuroscience at MIT;  Hiring by UW; Research; Teaching; Associate Vice Chancellorship; Cluster hiring initiative; Committee service; Climate for women on campus; Women in science; Children; Leisure. 

First Interview Session (July 10, 2006): Digital File

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	[Begin Tape 1/Side 1] Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:25	Katherine Kalil grew up in New Jersey.  She talks about her family: her mother was a patent attorney who had degrees in chemistry and law.  She worked on patenting inventions related to the Manhattan project.  Her father was a chemical engineer.

00:02:48	She talks about her high school education.

00:03:41	KK chose to attend Bryn Mawr over MIT.

00:04:50	She did well in her science courses but ended up being an English major.  She discusses her undergraduate years at Bryn Mawr.

00:06:14	KK pursued graduate study in English at Brown University. She married and had her first child while at Brown, at the age of 22.

00:07:52	She received her master’s and completed most of the work for her PhD before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her husband was getting a degree in neuroscience at MIT.  She spent a year working as an instructor at the Connecticut College for Women in New London, CT.  During this year she realized she didn’t want to make a career as an English teacher.  At the time she was writing her dissertation on George Eliot but never finished it.

00:09:46	Her husband thought she would like studying neuroscience and encouraged her to apply to MIT.  She describes interviewing while pregnant with her second child.  She says she was interviewed exclusively by men, and they treated her well.

00:11:46	KK found these years at MIT extremely stressful.  She finished her degree in four years, even though she started with no background in neuroscience.

00:14:17	Her husband had a job as an assistant professor at UW-Madison.  KK had a postdoc. There were no women in the anatomy department.  She was offered a second-class teaching job but rejected it. She wanted to apply to teach gross anatomy but had to take the course first.  As a postdoc she didn’t take the course very seriously, and she got a B.

00:18:23	She received an NSF grant for her research the day before a committee chose whether to hire her to teach gross anatomy.  KK was determined to have an independent position that would enable her to do her research; she did not want to be sidetracked, as other women had been, into non-tenured positions such as permanent research associates. In 1978 she received an NIH grant, which she has renewed ever since.

00:21:02	KK talks about teaching gross anatomy and balancing this with her two grants and raising her two children herself.

00:22:01	She discusses her progress toward tenure.  She talks about her sense of isolation as the only woman in the department; she had no mentor.

00:25:15	The culture of the anatomy department has changed since she first arrived, most notably in the addition of more women faculty.

00:26:16	KK describes her research on how neurons make their connections with other brain cells during development.  She has been able to maintain NIH funding over several decades because her research has continued to be at the forefront of neural imaging.

00:29:27	Her peers consider her grants to be well-written and organized.  She comments on her belief that it is important to have persuasive and clear writing in a grant.

00:30:53	She begins to describe how her research teams are assembled. [End side 1; begin side 2] Katherine Kalil continues to speak about leading her research teams.

00:33:04	She talks about the entry of women into the field.

00:34:21	KK served as an associate vice chancellor from 1996 to 1999.  She was responsible for the Cluster Hiring Initiative.  She believed greatly in collaboration, and that is why she pushed for this initiative. She had realized how difficult it was for inter-disciplinary programs to recruit.  Her service on the Hearn committee, which made a blueprint for biology, was also formative because she wrote the committee’s report. Her brief as associate vice chancellor was to reorganize biology on campus.  She planned to introduce interdisciplinary hiring; Chancellor John Wiley told her such a plan would be viable only if it operated on the entire campus.

00:39:46	She talks about the first year of the cluster-hire program.  Wiley delegated to her the decisions on the first year of hires. Eventually the anatomy department hired six people, including the entire stem cell group, zebra fish group, and biophotonics group.  Cluster hiring changed the complexion of the anatomy department and the sciences on campus more generally.

00:44:18	Whereas many administrators get caught up in bureaucratic procedures, her immersion in and love for research compelled her to bring the cluster hiring initiative to fruition.

00:50:32	NIH awarded her a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, which entailed seven years of research support.  NIH paid 80 percent of her salary, thus freeing her from her heavy teaching load.  She no longer teaches in the classroom but continues to train students in the lab.

00:53:47	She enjoys publishing and grant writing.

00:55:59	KK describes her service on campus committees.  Graduate Fellowships Committee, Hearn Committee, Biological Sciences Advisory Committee, Tenure Committee.  She was the sole woman sitting on the Research Committee.

00:57:51	In her opinion the climate for women has improved since she arrived on campus.  KK  considers herself a scientist, not a “woman in science.” KK believes that problems in getting women into science do not occur in girls’ youth but rather much later, when women try to get tenure.

01:03:30	[End tape 1; begin tape 2] Katherine Kalil talks about her children and extended family.

01:08:26	She discusses her leisure activities.

01:12:07	Plans for future research.

01:13:56	KK reflects on her career and her opportunity to have both a successful family and career.

00:12:50	End of First Interview Session

End of Interview #782