Biography

Rachele is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sacripante Research Group. After finishing her BSc in the Chemistry Co-operative program with a Biology and English minor, she went on to earn her MSc in Molecular Science under the co-supervision of Dr. Daniel Foucher and Dr. Andrew McWilliams, where her thesis focused on synthesizing novel polystyrenic onium and substituted thionylphosphazene antimicrobials. Now co-supervised with both Dr. Sacripante and Dr. Foucher for her doctoral studies, she is interested in functionalizing both lignin and lignin by-products to make sustainable polyester, polycarbonate, and polyurethane resins to explore their properties and potential applications. In her free time, Rachele can often be found attending a concert or musical theatre production, solving puzzles in an escape room with her friends and lab mates, or playing Animal Crossing or Pokémon on the Nintendo Switch.