Dartmouth Chemistry Professor Karen Wetterhahn died on June 8 at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center from complications from a rare type of mercury poisoning.
Wetterhahn was a world-renowned research scientist whose specialty was studying the effects of heavy metals on DNA and proteins.
She received a $7 million grant from the National Institute for Environmental Health Services for her research in 1995.
Hospitalized since the end of January, Wetterhahn was most likely exposed to the toxic metal in her College laboratory last August.
Wetterhahn told College investigators that she remembered spilling one or several drops of the mercury on the disposable latex gloves she was wearing, according to an article in the Valley News.
Although doctors at the DHMC had been able to reduce the amount of mercury in Wetterhahn's blood, there was no way to repair the neurological damage that the dimethylmercury had already caused, according to the article.
Wetterhahn was the Albert Bradley Third Century Professor in the Sciences and also served the College in several administrative roles.
As dean of graduate studies in 1990, associate dean of the faculty for the sciences from 1990 to 1994 and acting dean of the faculty of arts and sciences in 1995, Wetterhahn helped enhance both the undergraduate and graduate science programs at the College.
She co-founded the Women in Science Project in 1990, which aims to increase the number of women majoring and taking courses in the sciences, including mathematics and engineering.
She was also instrumental in initiating a curriculum in structural biology, which studies the structure of biologically active molecules to learn how they function and interact, according to a College press release.
Wetterhahn was born in 1948 in Plattsburgh, N.Y. and graduated from St. Mary's High School in Champlain, N.Y., according to the release. In 1970 she received her bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from St. Lawrence University and then received her doctorate from Columbia University in 1975.
After spending a year at the Institute of Cancer Research at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Wetterhahn became a Dartmouth faculty member in 1976.
From 1981 to 1985 Wetterhahn served as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and was honored in 1989 by St. Lawrence University with the Alumni Citation in science and education, according to the release.
She also showed her interest in science education locally by serving as a trustee of the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vt. since 1994.
An internationally known scientist who published more than 85 research papers, Wetterhahn was also a member of several scientific societies, including the Women in Cancer Research Society and the American Association for Cancer Research.
In addition to her enjoying her activities in the research laboratories, Wetterhahn also enjoyed outdoor activities. She enjoyed palying golf and tennis and liked to work in her garden, travel, ski and ride horseback, according to the press release.
Wetterhahn is survived by her husband, Leon Webb of Lyme, NH; her daughter Charlotte Webb and her son Leon Webb.
