Ashly (she/her) is a senior Honors Scholar, University Scholar, and Goldwater Scholar pursuing a degree in Chemistry and Physics with a minor in Mathematics.  On campus, she serves as the President of the Chemistry Club, an Organic Chemistry Undergraduate TA under Dr. Nicholas Leadbeater, and runs the General Chemistry Worksheet Sessions for CHEM 1127Q & 1128Q.

Ashly began her research journey her freshman year under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas Leadbeater in the New Synthetic Methods Group.  As a member of the group, Ashly focused on studying how constant current electrolysis and radical catalysts can be utilized as a replacement for toxic metal oxidants.  In this pursuit, she utilized a commercially available electrochemical setup, overcoming issues with reproducibility, one of the biggest drawbacks of organic electrochemistry.  During the summer between her freshman and sophomore year, she received the Dr. Charles Waring Scholarship to work towards developing an electrochemical method to synthesize imine dimers.  During her sophomore year, she received the Caxide Scholars Award to work on her self-proposed project of using electrochemistry to synthesize novel acyl pyrazoles.  She has since concluded this work and published her method in Synlett.

During her Junior year, Ashly begun her involvement with Dr. Tomoyasu Mani in the Mani Group to focus on methods in Physical Chemistry.  In this group, Ashly is working with magnetic resonance spectroscopies to study the quantum behavior of radical pairs.  Some examples of this would be her work using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) to study radical cations generated via in-situ electrolysis, and her University Scholar project using photo-chemically induced nuclear polarization (photo-CIDNP) to bridge the gap between molecular structure and spin behavior in molecular qubits.

Upon completing her undergraduate degree, she plans to pursue a PhD in Physical Chemistry and is hoping to specialize in magnetic resonance spectroscopies.  Ashly is fascinated by quantum electrodynamics, especially involving spin.  Outside of the academic world, Ashly enjoys crocheting, thrifting, and taking care of her army of houseplants!”