Bio
Megan grew up in South Carolina, where she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at Clemson University in 2020. Her graduate focus was the efficient synthesis of polyaminocarboxylic acid ligands for f-element separations. In 2021 she became a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Case Western Reserve University under Dr. Christine Duval. Here she synthesized diglycolamide ligands covalently bound to electrospun polymeric membranes for the rapid purification of actinium-225. In 2023 Megan joined the Chemical Separations Group at ORNL as a postdoctoral research associate under the guidance of Dr. Nikki Thiele. In 2025 she was hired as a Distinguished Staff Scientist as part of the University of Tennessee - Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII) at ORNL. Her focus in the Radiopharmaceutical Therapies Convergent Research Initiative is investigating new chelators for targeted alpha therapy applications.