Catherine Clarke Fenselau

Catherine Clarke Fenselau (born 15 April 1939) is an American scientist who was the first trained mass spectrometrist on the faculty of an American medical school; she joined Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1968. She specializes in biomedical applications of mass spectrometry. She has been recognized as an outstanding scientist in the field of bioanalytical chemistry because of her work using mass spectrometry to study biomolecules. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1961 with an Artium baccalaureus in chemistry. When she arrived, Johns Hopkins did not have a mass spectrometer. Fenselau did her initial research by driving to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) laboratories to use their instruments. Paul Talalay, chairman of Pharmacology, and Albert L. Lehninger, the chairman of Biological Chemistry, submitted proposals for funding for a state of the art mass spectrometer. They were successful in obtaining funding from the National Science Foundation for a CEC 21-110 double-focusing mass spectrometer for Fenselau to use.

University of Maryland Although Fenselau and her second husband Robert Cotter both worked in mass spectrometry at Johns Hopkins, they chose to develop independent careers rather than a joint lab. "We felt that we could make twice as many contributions to science if we had two separate labs and evolved in our own ways that reflected our own skills and our own institutions." She has been president of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) from 1982 to 1984, founding president of US-Human Proteome Organization (US HUPO), and senior vice president of international Human Proteome Organization.

She was the founding editor of Biomedical Mass Spectrometry (now the Journal of Mass Spectrometry) and associate editor of Analytical Chemistry.

Catherine Fenselau continues to teach at the University of Maryland College Park. More than 150 post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students have received training in her laboratories at Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Maryland, College Park. Garvan Medal, 1985 as a distinguished woman in chemistry. Maryland Chemist of the Year, American Chemical Society, 1989. Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry, 1999 National Institutes of Health MERIT Award, 1991–2001. Field & Franklin Award for Contributions in Mass spectrometry, American Chemical Society (ACS), 2008. Thomson Medal, International Mass Spectrometry Foundation, 2009. Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2010 John B. Fenn Award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry, American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2012. Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in Mass Spectrometry, 2014 Distinguished Contribution Award, the Association for Mass Spectrometry and Advances in Clinical Lab (MSACL), 2017 US Human Proteome Organization Catherine E. Costello Lifetime Achievement in Proteomics Award, 2022. Fellow of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2025.

Personal life Fenselau was married twice, first to Allan H. Fenselau, with whom she had two sons, and later to Robert J. Cotter.