Catherine L. Drennan received an A.B. in Chemistry at Vassar College in 1985 and, following several years of high school teaching, she returned to graduate school at the University of Michigan. Her thesis work, under the direction of Professor Martha Ludwig, focused on the X-ray structure determination of the methylcobalamin-binding domain of methionine synthase. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry in 1995, after which she was a Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Douglas C. Rees at the California Institute of Technology. In 1999 she joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, and was promoted to Associate Professor of Chemistry with tenure in 2005. Her main research interest is the use of X-ray crystallography to study the structure and mechanism of metalloproteins. Her awards include the Searle Scholar Award, ASBMB-Schering-Plough Research Institute Scientific Achievement Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award, the Dean's Educational and Student Advising Award, Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She is a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Publications Committee of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Communications Committee of American Crystallographic Association. At MIT, Cathy teaches Principles of Freshmen Chemistry 5.111 and is the faculty advisor of MUBA (MIT Undergraduate Biochemistry Association).