Katherine Wydner, Ph.D.

I graduated from Newton High School (Newton, NJ) in 1978 as my class valedictorian. After earning an A.B. in Biology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology jointly from Rutgers University and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,

I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rutgers University for four years. I also taught for one year at College of Saint Elizabeth (Convent Station, NJ). I began teaching as an Assistant Professor at Saint Peter’s in August 1996, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2003. in 2010, I became the Health Careers Advisor/Chair of the Health Careers Advisory Committee.

My formal research training and background is in genetics – cytogenetics and molecular genetics, e.g. gene mapping. I am also interested in birds and their behavior, and I run Project FeederWatch (PFW) on campus. I am very passionate about natural history, biodiversity, and sustainability. In summer 2018, I was awarded a grant from the Society for Biodiversity Preservation to create a “Native Plant Garden for Birds and Pollinators” next to Gannon Hall in the area where we carry out PFW. My PFW team of students and I will be collecting data to determine if “habitat restoration” increases bird biodiversity on campus over time. I have other research interests as well, including topics related to astrobiology, evolution, and stem cell research.