Rebecca E. Key, Ph.D.

Work directly with the below technologies for the development of RacePrep.fit: a fitness-training app to better enable athletes to track their progress and meet their goals for their desired race events:

• HTML/JSX
• JavaScript, including the following libraries/frameworks
• React
• Chakra UI

• React
• JavaScript
• Chakra UI
• HTML/JSX
• Git
• GitHub
• Emacs

• Oversaw quality control (QC) on both finished products and raw materials
• Tested raw goods from new suppliers and vendors to ensure that they meet application requirements
• Updated and developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for laboratory testing
• Recruited and supervised laboratory personnel
• Worked with in-house legal counsel to ensure that products met the regulatory standards for the locations where they are sold (both within North America and internationally)
• Worked with customer service/technical support to help answer product questions and resolve technical challenges for Seachem customers
• Performed research and development (R&D) for new Seachem products
• Trained new laboratory personnel and QC staff on laboratory techniques

The following is a curated list of notable projects:

• Collaborated in the development and deployment of a new production technique to increase the throughput of a key Seachem product. This new technique resulted in an approximate 100-fold increase in throughput, which also directly led to an increase in sales of this product.
• Identified the need for a new product to supplement an existing product. After successfully pitching the idea to upper management, managed the entire product development cycle from initial research through final product testing.
• Overhauled the QC system to ensure that all products were regularly tested according to established protocols and to ensure that all corresponding documentation was properly completed and archived such that it can be easily accessed when needs arise (such as during inspections by regulatory agencies, e.g., USDA/APHIS).

• Regulatory Compliance
• Research and Development
• Management
• Quality Control
• Operations
• Production
• Leadership
• Testing
• Product Development

My research focused on utilizing techniques and principles from organic and inorganic chemistry to design catalysts to convert lignin (a renewable carbon source) and lignin models into valuable fuels and chemicals, such as quinones.

• Advisor: Joseph J. Bozell, Ph.D.
• Designed various Co- and Cu-salens for catalyzing the phenolic oxidation of lignin and lignin models
• Collaborated with computational scientists to investigate catalyst conformations
• Collaborated with members within The Center for Direct Catalytic Conversion of Biomass to Biofuels (C3Bio), our DOE Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC)
• Organized a "Careers in Startups" webinar
• Organized meet and greets for EFRC early-career scientists at the Spring 2016 and Spring 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meetings
• Maintained laboratory equipment, including glove box and NMR
• Ordered supplies and reagents for the laboratory
• Trained new personnel on laboratory techniques
• Mentored graduate students in the laboratory

• Catalysis
• Synthesis
• Characterization
• Carbon
• Renewable Energy
• Fuels
• Research

The following research focused on developing approaches to synthetically produce compounds isolated from macroalgae as potential drugs for treating malaria and staph.

• Advisor: Stefan France, Ph.D.
• Developed methodologies and total syntheses for natural products, including:
• Callophycolide A, an antimalarial benzene diterpenoid
• Callophycoic acids G and H, antibacterial diterpene benzoic acids
• Trained graduate students, undergraduate students, and NSF REU students on laboratory techniques
• Mentored undergraduate students in organic synthesis

The following research utilized advanced characterization techniques to investigate the effects of a catalyst system with potential applications to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

• Advisor: Christopher W. Jones, Ph.D.
• Synthesized and characterized Co-salens for catalysis of hydrolytic kinetic resolution (HKR)
• Ordered supplies and reagents for the laboratory (>20 group members)
• Served as safety liaison for the Molecular Catalysis Laboratory
• Maintained laboratory equipment, including glove box, GC/MS, and chiral GC/FID

• Organic Synthesis
• Organic Chemistry
• Characterization
• Catalysis
• Mentoring
• Research
• Organometallics
• Pharmaceuticals