Kristen Gardner

BS Chemistry, UNC Chapel Hill, 2019
PhD, UC Berkeley, 2024
kgardner [at] caltech.edu

Kristen grew up in North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied cation-controlled olefin isomerization by palladium complexes under Prof. Alexander Miller. Although she loved her time doing synthetic inorganic chemistry, Kristen knew she wanted to study organic chemistry in graduate school. She moved out west to pursue her PhD with Prof. Richmond Sarpong at UC Berkeley. There, she studied the diversification of 2-pyrone into a variety of ring scaffolds for both methodology development and total synthesis. Wanting to combine her interests in organometallic chemistry and synthesis, Kristen moved to sunny Pasadena to work on reductive catalysis in the Reisman group. Outside of the lab, Kristen can be found watching Greys Anatomy, playing the Sims, or intensely watching her favorite sports teams/athletes.
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