Katherine B. Holt (born 1977) is a British chemist who is a professor at University College London. She serves as Vice Dean for Education in the Department of Mathematics and Physical Sciences. Her research investigates the development of carbon-based electrodes and electrocatalysis.
Contents
Early life and education
Holt was born in the United Kingdom. Her parents were both chemistry teachers and she grew up around chemistry textbooks. She studied chemistry throughout high school, and was accepted to study in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. During her final year at Oxford, she joined the research group of John Foord, with whom she studied diamond thin films. She focussed on the creation of boron-doped diamond, which could be used as highly conductive electrodes. Holt stayed at the University of Oxford for doctoral research, where she looked to apply her conductive diamond films to electrochemical water waste treatment.
Research and career
Holt became interested in research in the United States, and applied to the laboratory of Allen J. Bard at the University of Texas at Austin, where she started to work on biological systems, such as studying the impact of silver ions on Escherichia coli respiration. After two years in Texas, Holt returned to the United Kingdom, where she joined University College London. She worked as a Centenary Ramsay Fellow. She was appointed an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council advanced research fellow in 2006 and a lecturer at University College London in 2007. In 2018 she was promoted to Professor of Chemistry at UCL.