Pamela Mertz

Biography

Pam Mertz is a biochemist who teaches both biochemistry lecture and laboratory courses as well as general chemistry II lab and Medicinal Chemistry.  She also teaches first year seminar.   She incorporates research into the biochemistry lab curriculum as a member of the Malate Dehydrogenase CUREs Community.  She was a department co-leader for the CUR Transformations Project (NSF-DUE Award #1625354), which involved scaffolding undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum for chemistry and biochemistry majors. 

Her lab has worked on a number of biochemical projects including in the areas of lipid metabolism and enzyme regulation.  She also does research in science pedagogy, from laboratory and capstone projects to students’ professional skill development, and biomolecular visualization literacy.  

She serves as an Associate Director for BioMolViz, https://biomolviz.org, and on the editorial board for the journal Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. She served for twelve years on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Student Chapters steering committee, including five years as chair from 2020-2025, and was appointed to ASBMB’s Nominating Committee in 2025.

At St. Mary’s, she serves as chair of the Health Sciences Advisory Committee.