Kathleen Matthews (biochemist)

Kathleen Matthews is an American biochemist specializing in DNA/protein interactions, specifically related to the lac repressor. She is the Stewart Memorial Professor Emerita of BioSciences at Rice University.

Career
Kathleen ("Kathy") Shive Matthews is Stewart Memorial Professor Emerita in BioSciences at Rice University and a founding member of the Biochemistry department, which later merged to become the BioSciences department. She received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and went on to obtain her PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford university, she joined the faculty at Rice as an Assistant Professor in Biochemistry at its inception in 1972. Later, she became department chair of the Department of Biochemistry from 1987 to 1995, and between 1998 and 2009 was the Dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. As Dean, Matthews was co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant aimed at recruiting and developing the careers of women in academia in the fields of science and engineering.

Research
Matthews' research focused on the interactions of protein and DNA, in particular lac repressor and the Hox gene protein Ultrabithorax. Matthews built upon that of other biochemists, including Temple F. Smith and John "Jack" Sadler, and investigated how cysteine thiol groups within the lac repressor core directly interacted with the lac operon, initially proposing that the four core regions in each of the homotetramer lac repressor protein were all required for binding with the lac operon in 1980. Later, Matthews investigated how specific subunits of the lac repressor interact with one another and consequently affect the functioning of the repressor. She has written over 170 papers during her career, which lasted over 50 years.

Awards
In 1996 she was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2010, Matthews was honored as a Women in Science with Excellence honoree for her role in the Biochemistry department at Rice. She received the William C. Rose Award in 2015 for her work in DNA-binding proteins and her commitment to mentoring young scientists.