Arianne Hunter
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.