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Katherine Peter, Ph.D.

she/her/hers
Research Scientist
Office
Center for Urban Waters (CUW)
Phone Number
Campus Mailbox
358438

About

Degrees

Ph.D.
Environmental Engineering
University of Iowa
2016
B.S.
Chemical Engineering
Washington University in St. Louis
2013

Introduction

Katherine (Kathy) Peter has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa, and previously completed postdocs at both UW Tacoma (Center for Urban Waters) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Kathy studies water quality and contaminant fate in both natural and engineered systems, with a focus on urban stormwater and vehicle-derived pollution. She is working to develop methods that use analytical chemistry (specifically, non-targeted analysis by high-resolution mass spectrometry) to identify, differentiate, and track contaminant sources in the environment. As an active member of the Best Practices for Non-Targeted Analysis (BP4NTA) working group, Kathy is also interested in developing tools and resources that support non-targeted analysis researchers and improve reporting/data quality. Her research has been published in journals such as Science, Environmental Science & Technology, and Analytical Chemistry.

Selected Publications

Hu, X., Mar, D., Suzuki, N., Zhang, B., Peter, K.T., Beck, D.A.C., Kolodziej, E.P. Mass-Suite: a novel open-source python package for high-resolution mass spectrometry data analysis. Journal of Cheminformatics. 2023, 15 (87). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13321-023-00741-9 
 

Zhao, H.N., Hu, X., Tian, Z., Gonzalez, M., Rideout, C.A., Peter, K.T., Dodd, M.C., Kolodziej, E.P. Transformation Products of Tire Rubber Antioxidant 6PPD in Heterogeneous Gas-Phase Ozonation: Identification and Environmental Occurrence. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, 57 (14), 5621-5632. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08690
 

Phillips, A.L., Peter, K.T., Sobus, J.R., Fisher, C.M., Manzano, C.A., McEachran, A.D., Williams, A.J., Knolhoff, A.M., Ulrich, E.M. Standardizing non-targeted analysis reporting to advance exposure science and environmental epidemiology. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 2023, 33, 501–504. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00490-1 
 

Hu, X., Zhao, H.N., Tian, Z., Peter, K.T., Dodd, M.C., Kolodziej, E.P. Chemical characteristics, leaching, and stability of the ubiquitous tire rubber-derived toxicant 6PPD-quinone. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 2023, 25 (5), 901-911. https://doi.org/10.1039/D3EM00047H

 

Fisher, C.M., Peter, K.T., Newton, S.R., Schaub, A.J., Sobus, J.R., Approaches for assessing performance of high-resolution mass spectrometry–based non-targeted analysis methods. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 2022, 414, 6455–6471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04203-3 

 

Hu, X., Zhao, H.Z., Tian, Z., Peter, K.T., Dodd, M.C., Kolodziej, E.P. Transformation Product Formation upon Heterogeneous Ozonation of the Tire Rubber Antioxidant 6PPD (N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N′-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine). Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2022, 9, 5, 413–419. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00187

 

Peter, K.T., Lundin, J.I., Wu, C., Feist, B.E., Tian, Z., Cameron, J.R., Scholz, N.L., Kolodziej, E.P. Characterizing the Chemical Profile of Biological Decline in Stormwater-Impacted Urban Watersheds. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2022, 56, 5, 3159–3169. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c08274

 

Peter, K.T., Kolodziej, E.P., Kucklick, J.R. Assessing Reliability of Non-targeted High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Fingerprints for Quantitative Source Apportionment in Complex Matrices. Anal. Chem. 2022, 94, 6, 2723–2731. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c03202

 

Peter, K.T., Phillips, A.L., Knolhoff, A.M., Gardinali, P.R., Manzano, C.A., Miller, K.E., Pristner, M., Sabourin, L., Sumarah, M.W., Warth, B., Sobus, J.R. The Non-Targeted Analysis Study Reporting Tool (SRT): A Framework to Improve Research Transparency and Reproducibility. Analytical Chemistry. 2021, 93 (41), 13870-13879. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02621

 

Tian, Z., Zhao, H., Peter, K.T., Gonzalez, M., Wetzel, J., Wu, C., Hu, X., Prat, J., Mudrock, E., Hettinger, R., Cortina, A.E., Biswas, R.G., Kock, F.V.C., Soong, R., Jenne, A., Du, B., Hou, F., He, H., Lundeen, R., Gilbreath, A., Sutton, R., Scholz, N.L., Davis, J.W., Dodd, M.C., Simpson, A., McIntyre, J.K., Kolodziej, E.P. A Ubiquitous Tire Rubber-Derived Chemical Induces Acute Mortality in Coho Salmon. Science. 2021, 371 (6525), 185-189. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd6951 

 

Peter, K.T., Hou, F., Tian, Z., Wu, C., Goehring, M., Liu, F., Kolodziej, E.P. More Than a First Flush: Urban Creek Storm Hydrographs Demonstrate Broad Contaminant Pollutographs. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2021, 54 (10), 6152-6165. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c00872