Rate My Professor Kathryn Mayer

Kathryn Mayer is an Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor of Record in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020. Mayer also holds an appointment as an Associate Member of the Mays Cancer Center—UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center since 2022. She completed her undergraduate and graduate education at Rice University, earning a B.S. in Physics in 2004, an M.S. in Physics in 2008, and a Ph.D. in Physics in 2010.

Mayer's research specializes in biophysics, optical techniques, plasmonics, single molecule studies, and metallic nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Her group at UTSA focuses on plasmonic nanomaterials, their interactions with biological systems, and applications in sensing and photothermal therapy. Key publications from her career include the highly influential review "Localized surface plasmon resonance sensors" with J.H. Hafner in Chemical Reviews (2011, over 5,100 citations); "A label-free immunoassay based upon localized surface plasmon resonance of gold nanorods" in ACS Nano (2008, 560 citations); "A single molecule immunoassay by localized surface plasmon resonance" in Nanotechnology (2010, 269 citations); "Improved localized surface plasmon resonance immunoassay with gold bipyramid substrates" in Analytical Chemistry (2009, 179 citations); "Multiphysics modeling of plasmonic photothermal heating effects in gold nanoparticles and nanoparticle arrays" in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2020, 93 citations); and "Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of PEGylated gold nanoparticles in human colon cancer cells" in Nano Express (2022). These works demonstrate her substantial impact in plasmonics and nanobio interfaces. In September 2022, Kathryn Mayer received an endowed fellowship. As Graduate Advisor of Record, she oversees the Physics M.S. and Ph.D. programs, contributing to graduate education in physics at UTSA. She is affiliated with the department's Biophysics Group.