Arianne Hunter

BS, Dartmouth College, 2014
PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2019
ahunter [at] caltech.edu

Arianne (or Ari to most people) was born and raised in Oklahoma City, OK where she did indeed grow up in a city and was no where near farms or cows. Obsessed with the idea of moving as far away from home as possible as an extremely independent minded teenager, she decided to venture to Hanover, New Hampshire to play Division I Basketball and get a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry and Anthropology at Dartmouth College. After being hazed by the freezing temperatures and having to fly out of Boston Logan for 4 years every time she wanted to visit her family, Ari decided to return to her home state of Oklahoma to get her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma under the guidance of Dr. Indrajeet Sharma. While there, her research focused on using rhodium (II) carbenoid mediated cascade reactions to rapidly construct biologically relevant molecules with high levels of three dimensionality. In graduate school she received the SMART Department of Defense Fellowship and was placed at the Defense Forensic Science Center in Atlanta, GA upon graduation to fulfill her service agreement from the award. While in this position she lived in Kuwait conducting forensic analysis on evidence retrieved by US soldiers and our allies from violent extremist organizations. After fulfilling her service agreement, Ari realized she missed organic chemistry and decided to make a return to academia via the Reisman lab and Caltech! In her free time Ari enjoys powerlifting, hiking, reading corny romance novels, and critiquing cheap grocery store wines with her friends.