Kristala L. J. Prather is the Arthur D. Little Professor and department head in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. She earned an S.B. from MIT in 1994 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999, and worked four years in bioprocess research and development at Merck Research Laboratories before joining the MIT faculty. Her research focuses on designing and assembling recombinant microorganisms to produce small molecules, with additional work on novel bioprocess design approaches.
Prather’s honors include the Charles Thom Award of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (2017), the Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE, 2021), and the Marvin J. Johnson Award (BIOT Division, American Chemical Society, 2024). Additional honors include selection as a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2014-15), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; 2018), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE; 2020), and AIChE (2020), and election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2025.
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