Dr Kate Biberdorf is a chemist, science educator, bestselling author, and “pyromaniac” better known to her hundreds of thousands of fans and followers as Kate the Chemist. BuzzFeed cited her as one of the top women scientists in the world in 2018 and she has regularly appeared on major shows such as The Today Show, The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert, The Wendy Williams Show, and many others. To date, she has written eight books, all aimed at children, including The Big Book of Experiments, The Awesome Book of Edible Experiments for Kids, and a fictional series based on the adventures of Kate the Chemist.
Like many millennial scientists, Dr Biberdorf’s passion for science was helped along by watching Bill Nye the Science Guy whilst growing up in 1990s America. The show made her determined to become the next great television scientist. She studied chemistry at the University of Michigan and then inorganic chemistry at the University of Texas, after which her passion for teaching young people about science led her to join the teaching faculty of Texas. She soon created the Fun with Chemistry programme that helps to introduce young children from elementary school age upwards to science experiments. The program continues to run and reaches tens of thousands of children every year.
In just a few years, Biberdorf’s chemistry shows began finding ever-larger audiences, such as the USA Science and Engineering Festival, and she began attracting media interest, which has led to her fulfilling her childhood dream of becoming America’s next great television scientist.
