Karen McFarlane Holman

About Karen McFarlane Holman

Karen McFarlane Holman, Ph.D, has been a chemistry professor at Willamette University since 2001. Her research team (the \"Ru Crew\") focuses on the fundamental chemistry of Ru-based anti-cancer drugs with an emphasis on chemical dynamics using multi-nuclear NMR and other spectroscopic techniques. Prof. Holman and her collaborators were the first researchers in the world to establish that ruthenium-based drugs bind to RNA. She is also interested in photo-catalysis relevant to solar energy applications, stemming from her position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where she utilized X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the manganese-based Oxygen-Evolving Complex in Photosystem II. At the synchrotron facility at Berkeley, Karen was the lead on designing and building an endstation for beamline 9.3.1.In her Ph.D. work at the University of California Santa Barbara, Karen used laser flash photolysis to investigate short-lived organometallic intermediates relevant to catalysis based on iron and rhodium complexes. This DOE-funded project focused on the potential of catalyzing the formation of C-C bonds with applications towards efficient sources of synthesized fuels. In her undergraduate thesis project, she studied the binding of the rare earth metal praseodymium to a dye for potential applications of fluorescent materials.Her publication record includes 25 articles and book chapters in research journals such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, and Organometallics.Professor Karen Holman was awarded Professor of the Year for Oregon by the Carnegie Foundation in 2010. She is also an accomplished speaker with three TEDx talks (two invited); in one she describes metal-based anti-cancer drugs and in another she urges a closer look on Earth-abundant elements for applications in helping the world’s energy crisis.In Karen’s third TEDx talk, she describes how hobbies can impact one’s career. As a guitarist, she has performed at hundreds of rock concerts and festivals in the United States and her bands have published over ten albums since 1998.Karen is the Founder of KMUZ-FM, the first community radio station in the capital city of Oregon and has a chemistry education YouTube channel. She is the Director of the Willamette Science Outreach Program and has several years of participating in outreach herself. She is the Founder of Science Rockstar Kids, an online science enrichment program, and she taught chemistry at an all-girls science camp in Saudi Arabia twice.

Experience

1. Department Chair & Professor of Chemistry

   Willamette University

   Jun 2025 — Present

Education

• University of California, Santa Barbara

  Ph.D.

  1990 — 1996

• Willamette University

  B.A.

  1985 — 1990

Skills

• Nmr Spectroscopy
• Tlc
• Higher Education
• Data Analysis
• Chemistry
• Organic Synthesis
• Experimental Design
• Organometallic Chemistry
• Nmr
• Science
• Biochemistry
• Hplc
• Uv/Vis
• Gc-Ms