Biography

Kasey Leigh Yearty an assistant teaching professor at Rice University and is a Resident Assistant at Sid Richardson residential college. Originally from Macon, Georgia, she earned both a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Georgia. Yearty’s undergraduate research centered on nanocarrier-mediated delivery of metal-based drugs for cancer treatments. Her doctoral research, under the guidance of Prof. Richard Morrison, encompassed the development and implementation of multi-outcome experiments utilizing benchtop NMR technology in the undergraduate organic chemistry instructional laboratories.

While at Rice, Yearty has taught a number of chemistry courses including Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 211), the discussion sections for both Organic Chemistry I (CHEM 213) and Organic Chemistry II (CHEM 214), and Analytical Chemistry (CHEM 330). She has also taught several lab courses: the main-sequence organic chemistry lab (CHEM 215), organic chemistry lab for chemical engineers (CHEM 217), and the advanced organic chemistry lab for chemistry majors (CHEM 365). Additionally, she has overseen the undergraduate research conducted by chemistry majors both inside and outside of the department (CHEM 391/491) as well as the Chemistry Honors Research Program (CHEM 492/493). Her favorite part about being in the classroom is breaking down barriers that students have between themselves and the material. In her spare time, Yearty is a faculty organizer and mentor for Rice Fun with Chemistry, a Welch Foundation grant-funded outreach organization dedicated to inspiring and motivating K-12 students to develop an interest in and pursue careers in science fields.