Casey graduated from Grove City College in May 2007 with a BS in chemistry and a mathematics minor.  She grew up in the South Hills of Pittsburgh and is excited to return to Pittsburgh to earn her doctorate in physical chemistry.  She started working in the Pratt group in May 2007 where she was a predoctoral fellow.  In August 2007, she became a full-time graduate student and a chemistry teaching assistant.  She spent the summer of 2006 at the University of Virginia as a REU fellow in Dr. Lehmann's group, and she is looking forward to applying what she learned there about spectroscopy to the world of biomolecules.