Kevin M. Wernke, PhD, was born and raised in Grand Junction, CO, and earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Colorado Mesa University. During his time at CMU, he conducted research under the mentorship of Professor Kyle McQuade and also worked for a summer at Washington University in St. Louis as an undergraduate researcher.
After his undergraduate, Wernke went on to earn his doctorate at Yale University under the mentorship of Professor Seth Herzon. Wernke's doctoral research involved synthesizing and studying highly unstable metabolites from the human microbiome that are now known to play a causal role in colorectal cancer.
In 2022, Wernke joined the teams of Gregg Beckham, PhD, and Katrina Knauer, PhD, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Chemical Engineering. During his brief time there he worked on projects ranging from biomass valorization to plastics upcycling with both academic and industrial partners.
Wernke joined the chemistry faculty at CMU in the fall of 2023.
