By: Yiran Liu
Kelly Knight, an associate professor with the George Mason University Forensic Science Program, is passionate about science. Because of that, she often pondered if the science concepts she learned in high school would be useful to her after she graduated. During her 11th-grade anatomy class, she did an activity about the analysis of blood. It was the first time she had witnessed science in real life and it introduced her to forensics. “Nowadays, forensics is very popular,” says Knight. “You see it on TV shows. But there was no CSI when I was in high school.”
Achieving her career and dream was not easy. Academic struggles in college made the achievement of her dream full of obstacles. Despite these hardships, she received a college degree. She took chemistry classes and classes that were related to science. Despite the challenges, Knight persevered and was fortunate enough to have a mentor in the field of forensics who helped her achieve her dream job. She has experience analyzing DNA samples in a crime lab as a DNA analyst and has also trained forensic scientists in the forensic sciences division of the Maryland State Police.
Knight gets her best ideas when she is calm and can think things through. She says that when you spend a long time on a project, you blank out and may not get any more ideas. In her opinion, the best way to get new ideas would be to take steps away from the project. Her best ideas come from her students. Knight thinks they are a really good source of inspiration. She gives them flexibility in class to study and share their new findings.
Her biggest successes include the Teaching Excellence Award she won in 2020. She is proud of the award because it reflects back to her her own teaching practices and impacts. She says that scientists start to just rack up all their accomplishments without reflecting on what was done to achieve them. She believes that there isn’t much gratuity when teaching. She feels like she could always do more.
Kelly Knight did everything in her power to accomplish her dream, to become a forensics scientist. She overcame hardships so she could do what she wanted to do.