Christine K. Payne

Christine Payne is the Donald M. Alstadt Chair of the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University. Her research focuses on understanding how cells interact with nanomaterials. This includes fundamental questions of nanoparticle-protein interactions, as well as applied research to understand the pulmonary response to the inhalation of nanoparticles in a manufacturing setting. Her team uses an interdisciplinary approach that includes elements of materials science, chemistry, biophysics, and lab automation. She teaches classes on the quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics of materials including a class on the “Materials Science of Science Fiction.” She earned a S.B. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago (1998) and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley (2003). Prof. Payne spent 2003-2006 as an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. Prof. Payne has received many honors including an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2009), a DARPA Young Faculty Award (2011), and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Department of State working in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (2024).