Kristy Hawkins (born August 28, 1980 in Longview, Texas) is an IFBB professional female bodybuilder from the United States.Hawkins earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2002, graduating summa cum laude and with University and Foundation Honors. She read for her M.S. in Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2005. She is currently working towards a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, also at Caltech.
Hawkins is currently studying chemical engineering in the area of metabolic engineering in yeast with an emphasis on inducible promoter systems and other strategies for fine-tuning expression of recombinant enzymes / proteins. She is primarily working to produce benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in S. cerevisiae, but has also constructed yeast strains which exhibit modified responses from the GAL promoter and is pursuing other RNA-based strategies for regulation by small molecules in vivo.
Kristy enjoys reading (during cardio), cross-stitching, and hiking.
Kristy always struggled with her weight growing up and found her way into the weight room at a young age while her mother did aerobics. At age 15, she got her own gym membership and went every day after school/work. The owners were hosting a competition and taught her the basics of training, nutrition, and posing, and she has competed every year since age 17. She has twice placed in the top four at the NPC Nationals.
