Katherine “Kat” Krynak, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, is a molecular ecologist who bakes to reduce stress.
For 9 years, Kat has taught biology, conservation, herpetology, and more, at «Ӱҵ. She oversees «Ӱҵ’s captive breeding program for endangered plains garter snakes and teaches in Florida and the Metzger Nature Center as part of «Ӱҵ’s innovative Field Semester program.
Watching her students become proficient and confident in their skills is the best part of her work, she says.
“As much as I love my job, there’s just a lot going on all the time and I have a hard time shutting my mind off."
Baking, she says, provides a mental break.
Kat didn’t always have that perspective. Growing up on a farm, she stayed far away from the kitchen, rejecting the traditional gender roles that some tried to assign to her.
“I wanted to be out with the cows, I wanted to be mowing grass, anything but in the kitchen.”
Eventually, her sweet tooth changed her mind. “Honestly, I just really like sweets and I don’t like store bought cookies.”
Kat bakes her cut out cookies to bring to the Metzger Nature Center and main campus to share with fellow faculty and staff, and also for the spring Environmental and Field Biology Colloquium to celebrate the hard work and research successes of students.
She used to pick cookie cutter shapes related to course subjects. She once made crayfish cut outs with fungus-shaped sprinkles when students were studying porcelain disease in crayfish.
“Sounds gross, I know,” she laughed.
When she found a Polar Bear-shaped cookie cutter, she stuck with it. A little white frosting, an orange, heart-shaped nose, a black dot for the eye—they were an instant hit.
Cut-out cookies are time-consuming, cautions Kat. She spreads the workload over three days. She mixes dough day one, rolls out the dough, cuts shapes, and bakes day two, and frosts day three.
