Dr. Kemal Catalan

Applied Scientist of the Year

Dr. Kemal V. Catalan is a chemist who became a lawyer without ever leaving the bench behind. After earning a B.S. in chemistry from Jackson State University and a Ph.D. in bioinorganic chemistry from Michigan State University, he spent his first career at The Procter & Gamble Company, leading research and development teams across several business units that created surface modification technologies for consumer products used around the world. He is first inventor or co-inventor on more than forty global patents and first author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and internal technical reports. That body of work earned him the John Smale Research & Development Award, the highest research and development honor P&G confers on its scientists. Just as consequentially, he built and led diversity initiatives at the company devoted to recruiting, developing, and advancing Black and Hispanic Ph.D. scientists — work that made him a fixture in the pipeline that carries young people of color from the classroom into the laboratory.

That commitment scaled nationally through the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), where Dr. Catalan served as National Vice President and as National Business Development Manager, strengthening the corporate partnerships and student programming that put Black scientists on stage, in front of recruiters, and in graduate programs.

Following P&G, Dr. Catalan moved into innovation consulting and, alongside his wife, Dr. Kamaria Catalan — the 2025 STEMmysTM Applied Scientist of the Year — co-founded and administers two metropolitan Cincinnati veterinary practices. In 2019 he entered the University of Cincinnati College of Law, graduating in 2022, and founded KVC Law Firm, LLC. Licensed in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, he serves businesses, entrepreneurs, inventors, and nonprofits as outside general counsel. He devotes fully half of his practice to criminal defense, where his scientific training finds a second life: the same rigor he once brought to laboratory data he now brings to forensic and scientific evidence on behalf of people whose futures turn on it — a discipline with direct and immediate impact in the community he serves. He continues to mentor through Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., where he is a past executive board member and social action chair, and through the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which he served as president and delegate.

A black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Dr. Catalan teaches both children’s and adult classes, and he runs half marathons. He and Kamaria raised two adult sons inCincinnati and recently welcomed their first granddaughter.