OUR PEOPLE
Academic Credentials
- Ph.D., Chemistry, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 2023
- A.B., Chemistry, Cornell University, 2018
Professional Honors
- Barbara J. Burger Graduate Fellowship, 2022
- American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry, 2018
Dr. Overholts is trained as a polymer chemist, with extensive work in the field of polymer mechanochemistry. Her broad range of experience includes polymer catalysis, reaction kinetics, and development and characterization of stimuli-responsive materials.
As a chemist from an interdisciplinary field, Dr. Overholts is skilled in both small molecule and macromolecular synthesis, including a variety of controlled polymerization methods. She has experience in the characterization of polymeric materials, with expertise in techniques such as NMR, LCMS, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), fluorescence spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).
Prior to joining Ä¢¹½tv, Dr. Overholts earned her Ph.D. from Caltech with a research focus on developing new force-responsive small molecules for stress sensing and mechanochemical lithography in polymeric materials. She additionally studied the kinetics of these force-induced reactions. From this work she has practical knowledge of the impact of mechanical force in polymeric materials on the scale of atomic bonds.