2 Caltech Teachers Get $50,000 Study Grants

Two Caltech professors are among 100 women nationwide who have received Faculty Awards for Women Scientists and Engineers from the National Science Foundation.

Mary B. Kennedy, associate professor of biology, and Mary E. Lidstrom, professor of applied microbiology, will each receive a research grant of $50,000 a year for up to five years.

Kennedy, 44, graduated from St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind., and earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Her research is on the way in which nerve cells communicate with one another.

Lidstrom, 40, graduated from Oregon State University and earned her Ph.D. in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin. She taught at the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin before coming to Caltech in 1987.

Her research is on bacteria that survive by metabolizing methane gas and environmental pollutants.