Emily grew up among the cow pastures of Hampstead, MD, playing field hockey and dreaming of life in a town with more than one decent restaurant. She then moved less than an hour from home to the literal best place on earth, Gettysburg College (in a town with at least two decent restaurants!), where she had the time of her life and graduated valedictorian. During undergrad, she gained research experience under the guidance of Dr. Tim Funk, synthesizing and evaluating iron-based organometallic redox catalysts. Emily also spent a summer at Harvard University working to optimize a synthetic route to a small molecule enzyme inhibitor in Prof. Matt Shair’s lab.

After considering medical school, pharmacy school, and forgetting about science to become a barista, Emily ultimately decided to pursue a doctorate in organic chemistry at UNC Chapel Hill (in an area with many, many decent restaurants!!!). She is currently developing dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC)-based sensor arrays with fluorescent reporters. Outside of lab, Emily loves getting way too emotionally invested in sports (GO RAVENS), watching docuseries about brutal crimes, and giving love & affection to her perfect cat Luna (and also sometimes her fiancé Pearson).