PNNL

The Pacific Northwest Association of Toxicologists (PANWAT) presented its annual Toxicology Achievement Award to Katrina Waters at the Society of Toxicology Pacific Northwest Chapter Meeting, held in Lynnwood, Washington, on September 30^th. The award recognizes a researcher who demonstrates scholarship, leadership, and service in the field of toxicology. 

Waters’ research in the area began as a postdoctoral fellow and has since earned her accolades internationally. She focuses on the intersection of environmental exposures and infectious disease on human health. Her work in machine learning, biomarker discovery, and public health has had broad translational impact, influencing toxicological hazard assessments and advancing public health protection. She has served on two National Academy of Sciences committees related to predictive toxicology and multiple advisory committees, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Board of Scientific Counselors. 

In 2021, Waters was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences in the biological sciences section, and last year she was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Currently, Waters is leading the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) predictive phenomics research program which aims to understand the molecular basis of function in biological systems to control, re-create, and re-engineer desirable phenomes.

Upon receiving her award, Waters talked about her path from research to management and back again and offered her colleagues this advice, “work-life balance looks different for everyone, and it really doesn’t exist unless you find the right work environment with success metrics that support your life priorities.”

Waters’ award is preceded by two former PNNL researchers, Brian Thrall and Rick Corley, who earned the same PANWAT honor in 2022 and 2016, respectively.