Laura K.G. Ackerman-Biegasiewicz is an Assistant Professor in the chemistry department at Emory University. Laura was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i and received her B.A. in chemistry and religious studies from Claremont McKenna College in 2009. While in Claremont she conducted research under the guidance of Professor Andrew W. Zanella and Professor Anna G. Wenzel, gaining experience in synthetic inorganic chemistry and organocatalysis. She then joined the lab of Professor David A. Vicic for a summer at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. In 2010 Laura began working with Professor Daniel J. Weix at the University of Rochester, studying multimetallic catalyzed cross-coupling reactions as an NSF graduate research fellow. In 2016 she joined the lab of Professor Abigail G. Doyle at Princeton University, and with the support of an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, developed a Ni and photoredox promoted method for C–H esterification. Throughout her academic years, Laura was fortunate enough to serve as a teacher and mentor in many outreach programs, including for the PUEO program at Punahou School, the chemistry mentorship program at the Claremont Colleges, and the Horizons program at the University of Rochester. Laura joined Emory University in August 2023 and is currently working on designing high-throughput experimentation strategies that can accelerate the process of discovery in Earth-Abundant metal catalysis and organic synthesis.