Judith P. Klinman (born April 17, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)[1] is an American chemist, biochemist, and molecular biologist known for her work on enzyme catalysis.

[2] Klinman decided to enroll in the University of Pennsylvania's College for Women, despite pressure from her family to become a lab technician and get married.

[10] While in college, Klinman was a laboratory technician at the Eldridge R. Johnson Foundation for Research in Medical Physics at UPenn.

[2] Klinman credits her time at NYU for "opening [her] eyes to the excitement and beauty of organic reaction mechanisms.

[2] Working in the laboratory of physical organic chemist Prof. Edward R. Thornton, Klinman studied the hydrolysis kinetics of benzyl-substituted imidiazoles.

[12] In 1966, Klinman travelled to the Weizmann Institute in Israel to conduct postdoctoral research with Prof. David Samuel.

Klinman's work with Samuel involved understanding the role of divalent metal ions in the hydrolysis of high-energy acyl phosphates.

[18] In 1972, Klinman was promoted to an independent staff scientist, equivalent to an Assistant Professorship, at the Institute for Cancer Research.

[2][10] Judith Klinman later married Mordechai Mitnick, a grassroots organizer who later established a psychotherapy practice in Oakland.