Onward: An Interview with Genevieve Kahrilas
Genevieve Kahrilas is an adaptive and passionate individual whose journey to the world of chemistry was anything but conventional. Growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, she was deeply engaged in science and music, excelling in math and physics while playing the violin and piano. Initially drawn toward music, her path took a sharp turn after a profound experience with organic chemistry in college.
Kahrilas brings excitement and innovation to all of her classes. Prioritizing visual learning, using demonstrations and real world applications to make concepts more understandable. From nearly failing general chemistry to becoming a dedicated professor, she is able to connect with students who may struggle in class. She is actively involved with students in research, mentoring them through projects that connect learning with practical applications.
Beyond academia, Kahrilas continues to grow her love for music, performing with the Minot Symphony Orchestra and attending musical extracurriculars. Her advice to students is clear: pursue passions, always have an open mind, and never let fear stop you, whether it's science or music. Her commitment to lifelong learning is an inspiration to those around her.
Blending creativity with scientific curiosity, Kahrilas sat down with University Communications to reflect on her nontraditional path to chemistry, her dedication to students, and the role music continues to play in her life in the newest installment of Onward.
What can you tell me about where you grew up and what your early interests were?
GK: I grew up in a small suburb of Chicago called Park Ridge, Illinois. I was always interested in math and science as a kid, but I was also very much into music. I started on piano when I was 5 years old, and in the 4th grade, I started on the violin (which I still play today).
What kind of hobbies or extracurricular activities did you enjoy growing up?
GK: I was very much involved with music and sports growing up. I played soccer for the local traveling soccer team and tennis for the varsity team in high school… right up until I busted my knee during my junior year. After having knee surgery to reconstruct the ACL and repair the meniscus in my knee, I decided to focus on music. I was very lucky to attend a high school with an excellent music program, and I played violin quite seriously during this time. I was involved in school musicals and gigs and was the concertmistress of our high school orchestra. For a long time, I thought that I would go into music, either play violin professionally or perhaps become a music educator. I ended up choosing science for my career path during my junior year of high school, but I was truly undecided even when I started my freshman year of undergrad at Northwestern.
Was there a specific moment or event in your childhood that sparked your interest in science, mainly chemistry?
GK: My love of science really caught fire thanks to a wonderful physics teacher I had in high school. I loved learning how all the forces in nature were intertwined and how the more I learned, the more mysteries there were to think about. I was truly a math and physics purist back in the day; however, I hated chemistry. More on that below!
Did you have any other career interests before deciding on chemistry, or did you know early on that this was the field for you?
GK: In short: yes… I had every other interest before chemistry. I am perhaps the most unlikely chemistry professor there ever was! In high school – and I cannot stress this enough – I really, truly, vehemently despised chemistry. As a math and physics purist, I thought chemistry was a garbage science that revolved around memorization… and I absolutely hated memorizing anything. I was initially accepted into an accelerated math program at Northwestern, then switched majors to an accelerated science program (called “integrated science program,” or ISP for short) that involved taking nearly every 400-level science class and every supporting 400-level math class associated with that science. (To say I was masochistic is an understatement.) Having avoided chemistry like the plague in high school, gen chem was the only gen-ed science I did not pass out of, forcing me to take gen chem as a freshman. It was awful. Gen chem reinforced every last bit of hatred I had for chemistry, and after almost failing the 3rd and final quarter of the class (saved by the curve!), I once again “swore off chemistry forever.”
But then, I took organic chemistry as a requirement for my major. And I fell in love. This was real science! Puzzles that had logical solutions and followed the laws of nature! I realized that what I hated about gen chem was the absence of detail and specificity… nothing made sense because nothing was taught in-depth. The more I learned, the more I realized that all of the physics I cherished so dearly in high school was, in fact, within the realm of chemistry! However, by the time I tried to officially change my major to chemistry, a missing pre-requisite class would have required me to stay 5 years to earn my bachelor’s. I was extremely burnt out by my third year of undergraduate studies, and staying two more years was a non-starter for me. So, I instead switched majors to Neurobiology, earning my bachelor’s after finishing my classes in a little over three years.
Even at this point in my life, I was still unsure as to what I wanted to do next. I thought I probably wanted to go to grad school, but I wanted to see what the field of Neurobiology was truly like before dedicating my life to it… perhaps the smartest thing I’ve done in my entire life. After working as a lab tech for a spinal cord injury repair lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz Health Sciences Center for a year, I knew neurobiology was not the science for me. I was not a fan of the memorization I was now forced into (biology is full of it!), and I truly grew tired of animal research in general. Neurobiology research often entails using mouse and rat models, and while I’m no fan of mice (they are evil), I find rats to be smart, funny, and intelligent, each with their own personality. It became very difficult to perform research that put my little friends in such pain, which is exactly what we were doing… The lab was studying potential cures for neuropathic pain, meaning all our rats were purposely given spinal cord injuries that left them with neuropathic pain so that it could be studied. I had to leave the field after about a year.
I never gave up on my love of chemistry, however, so at this point, I decided to go back to school to study it. I enrolled in a Master of Science program at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs to make up for my out-of-field bachelor's, then went on to a Ph.D. program at Colorado State University. The rest is history!
How did you feel when you first started teaching? What was the biggest adjustment you had to make from being a student to being a teacher?
GK: One word: overwhelmed. After earning my PhD, I actually left academia! (I “swore off academia completely, forever,” famous last words that have been a central focus in my life…) Immediately after leaving grad school, I worked for two years in the industry as a method development chemist in an analysis lab that performed QA/QC on pharmaceuticals and supplements. The work was fun at first, and the pay was great… but it became boring and stale after I’d learned everything about the instrumentation and the job. Advancement meant being put into the QA/QC department, where I’d be managing a spreadsheet, not doing science. So, I decided to make the bold leap back into academia – something that is nearly unheard of – and was lucky enough to land a spot here at Minot State. Though I loved to teach, I had absolutely zero teaching experience, and being thrown into this new position of authority was completely disorienting. (You mean I have to act like an adult!??) (Industry, if you didn’t know, is filled with children who never grow up.) The fact that so many people now relied on my organization and expertise and that there was no QA/QC department to double-check my work was absolutely terrifying. It took a few years for me to really get a handle on my duties as a professor!
How do you keep your classes engaging and inspire your students to develop a passion for chemistry?
GK: I try to bring to my classes what was missing from my early chemistry education: TONS of visual aids and demos. Chemistry is an extremely visual science!! Traditionally, however, it is taught in an almost explicitly verbal fashion. Verbal learning just doesn’t work for everyone; you could argue that it doesn’t work for most students, and it certainly didn’t work for me! I try to light a fire or five in every chem class that I teach and show students how chemistry is everything that you can see, feel, or hear.
What has been your favorite part of teaching at Minot State since arriving here?
GK: I really like this job; it’s taken me a while to get here, but this is where I belong! I enjoy almost every last bit of teaching; I love helping students understand things, and I really love spreading my excitement about science to those around me eager to learn. At Minot State, as a small undergraduate university, I actually get to teach and interact with students! And I also get to do research with them! We really have some excellent students and faculty here, definitely my favorite part of teaching at MSU.
What are some of the most exciting research projects you're currently involved in, and how do they relate to the courses you teach?
GK: I really love doing research! The two arms of my research focus on 1) silver nanoparticles, in a continuation of the project I worked on during my masters, and 2) using mass spectrometry and analytical chemistry to detect and measure chemicals. Nanoparticles are simply fascinating, and the study of nanoscience brings together chemistry and physics in a way you can actually see. We’re currently using green chemistry and non-traditional energy sources to make shaped silver nanoparticles, resulting in a rainbow of amazingly colored solutions!
I also do a lot of chemical detection, which is squarely in the field of analytical chemistry (which are the classes I primarily teach here at MSU). I’m involved in several collaborations with other professors who want to know what heavy metals might be in a plant sample or what alkaloid toxins exist in their flower nectar. I also lead the Medicinal Plant Chemistry program here at MSU, which is very much focused on analytical cannabis chemistry. The research I do with plant chem students draws directly from my time analyzing pharmaceuticals in the industry; what we are currently doing is running chemical analyses on legal “THC alternative” products such as the “d8-THC” vape cartridges that are still sold without regulation in most states. What we’ve found so far is that these products contain a HUGE number of unidentified chemicals in them and that they don’t always even contain the active ingredients they claim to have! It’s a ton of fun to take these sketchy products to the lab and see what’s really inside of them.
What advice would you give to students considering a career in chemistry or academia, based on your experiences at Minot State?
GK: Based on my extremely unique pathway to chemistry, I would say it’s totally okay if you don’t know exactly what you want to do. It’s never too late to switch fields or your career path… Once you find that thing that is intrinsically rewarding to you, follow it! When you do something you love for a living, work doesn’t feel like “work,” and you’ll find you can accomplish an amazing amount without as much effort as you’d think.
Outside of your academic work, what are some of your current hobbies or personal interests? Do they tie into your scientific work at all?
GK: After taking a break from violin for nearly 15 years after undergrad, I picked it up again three years ago and now play quite seriously in my free time. I’m in the Minot Symphony Orchestra and stay involved in as many musical extracurriculars as possible. Aside from the fact that music is just math you hear with your ears… no, this has absolutely nothing to do with my scientific work, which is why I love it so much! My advice to everyone: Remember to keep your hobbies and passions as you move through life; don’t give them up for your career. You have to feed your soul as well as your bank account!
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Published: 04/11/25
