Jillian is a medicinal chemist with a background in synthetic organic chemistry. She received her B.A. from New York University in Chemistry. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in 2018 at New York University under the advisement of Professor K. A. Woerpel working on the development of new synthetic reactions involving strained cyclic alkenes. Prior to joining Octant, she served as a medicinal chemist at Merck Research Laboratories in South San Francisco, CA in both the internal and external discovery chemistry groups. She has co-authored over ten publications and patents.In her free time, Jillian enjoys riding her motorcycle or bicycles, hiking, and exploring dive bars in the Bay Area and beyond.