Kristien E. Mortelmans is a microbiologist at SRI International's Biosciences Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases, holding the title of "senior microbiologist emeritus". She specializes in screening compounds for antimicrobial activity; in particular; she also studies the

biodegradation Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegrada ...

of explosives, the study of antibiotic resistance, and industrial microbiology (developing plastics and fuels).

Early life and education

Mortelmans grew up in

Ostend Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and moved to the United States in fall 1965 after her fiancé was accepted to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

to a master's program in electrical engineering, and they married the following Christmas. She initially took

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

to improve her skills as a typist at Kaiser Electronics and Aerospace, and continued her education after her husband graduated from Stanford and they moved to Sunnyvale so he could work at IBM. There, she attended the new De Anza College to build up credit to eventually transfer to a bachelor's program at San Jose State or Stanford; she was accepted to both programs, and picked Stanford. At Stanford, Mortelmans initially had enough prior credits to finish a degree in biology in two years, and found microbiology to be particularly fascinating. She earned a degree in Medical Microbiology, and continued into the Ph.D. program there, focusing on Salmonella plasmids, eventually having one named after her, pKM101; that plasmid is a key component in the Ames test (named for Bruce Ames).

Career

After receiving her Ph.D. from Stanford, Bruce Ames directed Mortelmans to SRI International, where she was hired in 1976.

Awards and memberships

She was the president of the

Society for Industrial Microbiology A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...

(SIM) from 2000 to 2001, and was the editor in chief of SIM News from 1992 to 2002. In 2002, she received the

Charles Porter Award Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

from SIM for her work with the organization. In 2000, she was named a Fellow of SRI.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortelmans, Kristien Living people Stanford University alumni SRI International people Place of birth missing (living people) Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area Year of birth missing (living people)