I am an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department and leader of the UBC Astrochemistry Laboratory. I am an astrochemist who uses the tools of physical chemistry to understand how molecules form and evolve in interstellar space and star-forming regions. I grew up in Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. I received my bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2012 after undertaking a project at the Centre for Trace Elements Otago in the lab of Dr Claudine Stirling studying uranium isotopes in meteorites and marine carbonates. After a short stint as a research assistant at Otago, I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to undertake my PhD in physical chemistry as a Fulbright Fellow. During my PhD in the group of Prof John T. Yates Jr., I conducted experiments studying low-temperature chemical and physical processes in laboratory analogues of ices found in cold interstellar regions. From 2016 to 2018, I worked in the lab of Dr Karin Oberg at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where I studied the dynamics, chemistry and spectroscopy of interstellar ices. Following my PhD, I took up a position as a Marie Curie fellow at the Institut de Physique de Rennes at the Université de Rennes 1, France where I worked on low-temperature gas-phase reactions of astrochemical importance. I studied the kinetics of gas-phase reactions involving aromatic molecules of relevance to the cold interstellar medium. I enjoy spending time outdoors, mountain biking, reading, sewing my own clothes and cooking (and eating!) good food.