I had the good fortune to begin my research career under the guidance of George Shields at Lake Forest College. Despite my dislike for physical chemistry, George convinced me to join his research group with an exciting project focused on the computational analysis of the enediyne anticancer antibiotics. The enediyne project was as interesting as advertised. When I graduated LFC one year later, the project left me with a publication, an award winning senior thesis, and the desire for more research. Throughout the year, George had been recommending graduate school and I wisely took his advice and moved onto the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. Marv Caruthers accepted me into his lab which developed the phosphoramidite method for DNA synthesis. The focus of my Ph.D. thesis was the synthesis and biochemical analysis of boranephosphate modified DNA with the goal of developing an improved oligonucleotide therapeutic. When I graduated CU with a Ph.D., I began my official industrial science career as a technical DNA chemist in the DNA microarray manufacturing group at Agilent Technologies. This talk will give a tour of my three research careers and provide insight on how undergraduate research provided the foundation for my graduate thesis and current work.

Highlights of a science career that began with undergraduate research

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.