Dr. Julie A. Pigza is an Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in Hattiesburg, MS. She received her B.S. from Allegheny College in 2002 followed by her Ph.D. from Indiana University (advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Johnston) in 2008. In 2009, she completed a postdoc with Dr. Tadeusz Molinski at the University of California, San Diego and then transitioned to her first independent career as an Assistant Professor at Queensborough Community College (2010-2013) before her final move to USM (2013-current). Her research interest in organocatalysis is generously supported by the NSF CAREER grant (2019-2024, award #1848257).